I'm Never Gonna Leave You
by Hediru
Summary: The Doctor loves his life, traveling across time and space in his TARDIS. He also lo- cares for his companion, Rose Tyler. Rose loves her Mum. But she also lo- cares for the Doctor. When tragedy at Canary Wharf strikes, they both make a choice: but is getting everything they want worth giving up everything they are? A Doomsday what-if with Rose and the Doctor in Pete's World.
1. Chapter 1

**Yes, I know that I have unfinished WIPs. I do intend to get back to them, eventually. But I have been working on this plot bunny offline for a little while now. That's right, I said offline. Which means that, unlike my other stories, I actually am a few chapters ahead. :) Which means two things:**

 **1\. This has actually been beta'd for a change.**

 **2\. This plot will have more depth than my other stories.**

 **This does not, unfortunately, mean that I will update regularly, though I will try to. My time to write is still limited. But I hope that this will be the best story I've ever written. Feel free to disagree!**

 **I'm posting this in honor of Doomsday month.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. If I did, Rose would still be traveling with Peter Capaldi, and River would've married someone else.**

CHAPTER 1

 **Voice Over:** _Planet Earth is not where I was born. But this is where I thought I'd die. (After all, I'd spent a lot of time there. I mean, I've spent more time on Earth than my own planet! I remember this one time when I... Ahem! Sorry. My gob's getting away from me again.)_

 _For the first nine hundred years or so of my life, nothing happened. (I mean, I traveled, made friends, saved a few planets and such, but nothing had happened that made my life seem like it had a purpose. And then there was the whole Time War thing. That certainly... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'll just stick to the story. Anyway...)_

 _And then I met a girl, (no_ woman!) _, named Rose Tyler. I'd grabbed her hand and told her, "Run!" She was fantastic! She stayed even after I changed my face. And I took her away from home in my magical machine. (Wait, did I say magical? There's no such thing as magic! It's science! And she's a TARDIS, not a machine. T-A-R-D-I-S, time and relative dimension in space. But... I guess you already knew that. Sorry.)_

 _I showed her the whole of time and space (just like I did the others, but_ she _showed_ me _who I was inside, and made me a better man!) I thought it would never end. I asked her once, "How long ya gonna stay with me?" "Forever," she'd replied. That's what I thought. But then came the army of ghosts. Then came Torchwood and the War. And that's when it all ended. I am the Doctor. This is the story of how I died._

 **Voice over fades away**

The Doctor was in the kitchen, making banana pancakes, his specialty. "Mornin' Rose! Glad you're up! The TARDIS has indicated that the universe's largest comet is colliding with a black hole somewhere near the Horsehead Nebula. Should be quite the show! You in?"

"It can wait 'til after breakfast, I hope?"

"Time machine, Rose. We can wait until next year, although I'd rather not."

"Great! Then I'm totally in!" she said, poking her tongue between her teeth in a teasing grin.

The Doctor's eyes zeroed in on that piece of pink flesh as if they were pulled by a magnet. He quickly looked away. If he was completely honest with himself, something that he avoided doing at all costs, he would have to admit that his feelings for his pink and yellow companion had ventured far beyond the platonic.

The pancakes were delicious! Rose enjoyed herself immensely. But soon she dropped her napkin. They both went for it. Their hands brushed under the table. Their eyes locked. Rose held her breath. There had always been a sort of tension between the two of them, even before he changed, but ever since Krop Tor, it seemed to be at a breaking point. It was almost as if there was a certain kind of electricity in the air surrounding the two of them. Before she knew what she was doing, she was leaning forward slowly, eyes closed and lips parted and then...

The Doctor sprang up onto his feet, putting what he deemed to be a safer distance between them. "Well, then. Day's a wasting! The sooner we finish our little brekkie, the sooner we can see our comet! Oh, and how about we pop in to see your Mum afterwards?"

Rose tried to hide her disappointment. She narrowed her eyes at him. " _You_ want to go see Mum? Alright, what'd you do?"

"Nothing!" he squeaked. "I just know that you love to see your Mum, and it's been awhile, relative time, and, I uh, thought you'd like to see her!" In truth, he just couldn't stand the tension in the TARDIS. If he was going to get a hold of himself, he needed a chaperone. Who better than Jackie Tyler?

"Alright, but I'm watching you, Mister. Anyway, it'll give me a chance to give her the present I bought for her on that asteroid bazaar the other day. What did you say it was called, again? Basil, Bazol..."

"Bazoolium."

"Right. That was it."

-DW-

The Doctor had sensed that a storm was coming, but he wasn't expecting this. Forget storm. This was a bloody hurricane, tornado, earthquake, volcano, and tsunami hitting all at once! What had started out as a routine visit to Jackie Tyler had turned into a ghost hunt. Then, what had started out as a few ghosts had turned into 5 million Cybermen. To make matters even worse, four Daleks had turned into millions with the touch of a hand by Mickey the Not-A-Complete-Idiot-But-Still-Screws-Things-Up. ( _Funny,_ the Doctor mused to himself. _I guess he's grown on me. Still, doesn't have the same ring to it._ ) Fortunately, the Doctor had a solution. Unfortunately, it could cost him the one thing that he held most dear, and it terrified him. Of course, he wasn't going to admit that.

"Well?!" he asked with enough exuberant glee that even Rose was fooled. "Isn't anyone gonna ask? What is it with the glasses?"

Void stuff. They were all covered in it: Pete, Mickey, Jake, the Doctor, and even Rose. The only one who wasn't was Jackie. But the good news was that the Cybermen and Daleks were covered with it as well; the sheer volume of creatures that could be sucked into the Void would be enough to make the breach close upon itself. Problem solved! Easy peasy!

Except that this created an entirely different set of problems, and Rose knew it. "But it's... like you said, we've all got Void stuff. Me too, 'cos we went to that parallel world." She looked at her hand with the 3D glasses and flexed her fingers, examining the particles floating around them. She pulled the glasses off. "We're all contaminated. We'll get pulled in."

"That's why you've gotta go," the Doctor responded, argued. Suddenly Rose realized what was happening. This very moment, she had to choose between the two people she loved the most: her Mum and the Doctor. The life she'd always wanted as a girl with a Mum and Dad and wealth, or the life with the love of her life, traveling in his TARDIS. It didn't matter that he didn't love her in return: just being with him was worth everything. Her decision was made, seemingly in an instant. But in truth, the decision was made when he'd told her in a northern accent, "It also travels in time." She knew that this is the life she was destined for, and if given another chance, she wouldn't change a thing. There was only one problem, however: she was really gonna miss her Mum!

She turned to Jackie. "I've had a life with you for nineteen years. But then I met the Doctor and... all the things I've seen him do for me. For you. For all of us. For the whole... stupid planet and every planet out there. He does it alone, Mum." She didn't see that behind her, the Doctor was watching her with terrible sadness in his eyes as he silently took a button on a chain out of his pocket. "But not anymore. 'Cos now he's got me."

It all happened so fast. A chain suddenly appeared around her neck, there was a tingling sensation as the world faded from her vision, then it suddenly reappeared again. Except that this time, it wasn't the same world. "Oh no you don't. He's not doing that to me again." She pressed down on the button around her neck. There was the tingling sensation again, and Pete's World faded out of focus, and her original universe reappeared around her. She startled the Doctor when she said, "I think this is the on switch..." He had obviously thought she was gone for good. _Git,_ she thought to herself.

Then, _That was the last time I will ever see Mum, and I didn't even tell her goodbye._ She shook her head to clear her thoughts. There was work to be done!

The Doctor grabbed Rose roughly by the shoulders, stooping slightly so he could look straight into her eyes. She had to know exactly what she was doing! "Once the breach collapses, that's it. You will never be able to see her again. Your own mother!"

She was very well aware of what she had just done. _Please, Doctor, don't make this any harder than it already is!_ She was _not_ going to cry in front of him! "I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never gonna leave you." Rose's voice was calm, though it wavered a little. But her confidence that she had made the right choice didn't waver in the least.

He stared at her for a moment, stunned. Then he released his grip. He knew that letting her stay was wrong. He should have sent her straight back to her Mum. But the Doctor was selfish. He wanted, no _needed_ her to stay with him, if he was completely honest with himself. He appeared to be reluctant to allow her to stay, but inside, he was almost giddy with relief and joy!

Rose breathed a sigh of relief. "So what can I do to help?"

He ordered her to put some settings into the computer. He sounded almost angry, he was so tense. Rose didn't seem the least fazed by his abrupt manner, though she had to admit that she was nervous. Every time he'd tried to send her away before, it was for a good reason. He only ever tried to send her away when the danger was so great that he thought that that was the only way he could keep her safe. They had survived the past incidents, but only barely. One time, the Doctor even regenerated, giving up his life just so she could live. What if she'd just made a huge mistake? The voice of the devil on Krop Tor haunted her. _The Valiant Child who will die in battle._ She shook it off. She was still with the Doctor. That was all that mattered. Still, she was not out of danger yet. Quite the opposite, actually, as she caught sight of something on the monitor. "We've got Cybermen on the way up."

"How many floors down?"

"Just one."

But her immediate worries were diffused when, surprisingly, it looked as if one of the Cybermen had turned on the others. Odd, that. But awfully lucky. The computer announced that it was ready, and the Doctor grinned at her. "That's more like it, bit of a smile! The old team!" She sounded more confident than she really felt.

The Doctor picked up her litany as he handed her one of the magnaclamps, praying to any god that might listen that this would work and he could keep Rose safe. "Hope and Glory, Mutt and Jeff, Shiver and Shake!"

"Which one's Shiver?" She teased him with her tongue poking between her teeth, trying to cut the tension in the room.

"Oh, I'm Shake." The Doctor beamed at her, clearly sensing her discomfort, and wanting to calm her. Or maybe he was calming himself.

Together they fastened their clamps to the wall, and gave each other a smile of encouragement. "Are you ready?" he asked her, hesitantly.

Rose stared out the window as she assumed her position by her magnaclamp. The Daleks were just on the other side of the glass. She nodded at him. "So are they."

"Let's do it!"

At first, everything went according to plan. When the levers were pulled into the "on" position, there was a sound of rushing wind, and Daleks and Cybermen alike were pulled straight through windows and doors, unable to fight the force of the Void. The Doctor and Rose grinned and shrieked triumphantly. It was working!

But they had celebrated too soon. Suddenly, there was a small explosion of sparks and the lever on Rose's side moved back into the "off" position. The smiles faded from their faces. The suction of the Void had started to ease. Rose reached for the lever while trying to maintain her grip on the clamp, but it was just slightly too far away. She strained to reach it, eventually falling onto it. The Doctor watched, full of dread. Rose whimpered as she struggled with the lever. Finally, she managed to push the lever upright. The Doctor watched with both of his hearts in his mouth. This was it. He was finally going to see her die, and as he expected, it was all his fault!

"Online and locked," the computer intoned. The suction increased once more. But, Rose had nothing to hold on to but the lever. The Doctor cried out to her, imploring her with both his panicked voice and pleading eyes just to "Hang on!" But the Void pulled at her, making it nearly impossible for her to keep her grip. He reached out to her, but in vain.

With one last cry, Rose's grip finally slipped. She fell inexorably towards the Void, crying out.

"ROOOOSSSSSSE!"

In a flash, the Doctor saw a possible timeline unfold in front of him as Rose flew backwards. It took only a moment, but it revealed plenty. He saw himself leaning against the white wall, his two hearts shattered, his hand empty, and his face a blank mask. He saw himself alone in the TARDIS, burning up a star to say goodbye, and leaving sentences unfinished. He saw Rose, trapped in another universe, alone. Never had a potential timeline terrified him more.

Pete appeared the moment before Rose reached the breach and she landed in his arms. A second later, the telltale tingling enveloped her, and the world faded and a new world appeared as before. To say that she was distraught was a gross understatement. "Take me back! Take me back!" She began to panic, tears streaming down her face and making her mascara run, pounding on the horrible white wall that separated the two worlds. "TAKE ME BACK!"

Pete took his button from around his neck and looked at it for a moment. "It's stopped working. The Doctor did it. The breach is closed."

Rose was in complete hysterics now. "NOOOOOOO! DOCTOR!" she screamed, pounding her fists on the wall again.

A gentle, trembling hand laid on her shoulder. "Rose..." a man's voice said, so low that it was almost a whisper.

She turned to him. "Doctor..." she breathed.

He took her in his arms, and they embraced. "I'm here, Rose. I'm here."


	2. Chapter 2

**I realized that the first chapter was basically a Doomsday rehash, and as such, boring. Therefore, here is chapter 2 to whet your appetitite.**

 **Reviews feed the muse!**

 **Disclaimer: I still don't own Doctor Who. Too bad.**

CHAPTER 2

They stood there for several minutes in each other's embrace, heedless of the others in the room, clinging to each other as if their lives depended on it. That was the closest call they had ever had. They had truly almost been separated forever. But once again, they had perservered. Still, not all was well.

"The TARDIS?" Rose whispered, breaking their long silence.

"Gone," the Doctor choked in reply.

"Oh... Doctor..." she breathed, pulling him even closer while more tears threatened to fall.

The Doctor gently withdrew himself from her embrace, but kept a death grip on her hand. Plastering an obviously fake smile on his face, he addressed the others in a cheery voice. "Jake, thanks for the help. Mickey, good to see you again. Jackie, glad you made it. Pete..." here, he faltered, swallowing thickly, but only for a second. "I hate to impose, but, I seem to have been separated from my ship. Mind if...?" His voice trailed off. Rose squeezed his hand for comfort. She knew him well enough to know how upset he really was.

Pete nodded. "I have plenty of spare bedrooms for all of you. Stay as long as you need to. Although, transportation may still be an issue. I must take Jake and Mickey home and I only have two more seats left in the Jeep, not three."

Rose answered for the Doctor, her voice sounding stronger than she felt. "Take Mum for now, and get her settled. The Doctor and I will wait here for your return. Thanks, Pete." The Doctor could only nod his agreement, all while keeping his death grip on Rose's hand. Pete acknowledged this arrangement with a nod, and he, Jake, and Mickey all turned to leave.

Jackie, however, was not in agreement. She knew how close she had come to losing her daughter. She knew that said daughter had chosen this man, no this _alien_ over her! She was furious! Jackie Tyler had given birth to this girl, and raised her for nineteen years on her own, sacrificing everything for Rose to have the best life possible. That's nineteen years of tending to her when she was sick, holding her when she was sad, and celebrating her victories, and this is the thanks she gets!? Not only did her daughter up and leave her suddenly to run away with a mad man in a blue box, but she had almost lost her daughter forever without even so much as a "Thanks, Mum for everything. I love you. Goodbye."

Enraged, she yelled, "Oh no you don't! I know you two. The minute my back is turned, you two are going to disappear back into the other universe, and I'll never see my daughter again!" She choked on tears that were threatening to fall. She wasn't really mad at her daughter. She had been in love once, and if given a choice between having her Pete forever or her own mother, she'd have done the same thing. But that didn't mean that Rose's apparent rejection didn't hurt. A lot.

"Mum..." Rose closed her eyes and sighed, trying hard to keep her own tears at bay. "We can't. We're... we're as trapped here as you are. She's... she's gone." One or two tears seeped through her closed eyelids, and she used her free hand to quickly wipe them away. The Doctor stood as still and as tense as a statue beside her. "I promise we'll see you again very soon, yeah?"

Jackie just huffed in reply, and turned away to wipe away the tears that were threatening to fall.

Rose saw, extricated herself from the Doctor's grip, and ran to her mother, embracing her from behind. "I'm sorry, Mum. I know why you're mad. But I'm not leaving you, now. I love you. I love you so much!" Jackie turned around and they embraced each other, tears falling. Jackie was still hurt, but her anger had subsided. For now.

She looked at the alien over her daughter's shoulder, who returned the look with a sincerely sad, terrified, and apologetic gaze. No wonder Rose loved that man. Despite everything, Jackie knew that the Doctor loved her daughter. She withdrew from the embrace and turned to the man who resembled her own beloved so acutely. Their eyes met. He might be a total stranger to her, but she couldn't deny how her heart skipped a beat when he gave her a small smile.

She turned to the younger pair who once again stood hand in hand. Curtly, she said, "I expect you both to sleep under the same roof as me tonight. Is that understood?" They nodded. Satisfied, Jackie left with the others.

As soon as they were alone, Rose turned to face the Doctor. His face was a stony mask that should have made his emotions unreadable, but Rose knew him well enough by now to see the pain he was burying. She reached up to gently touch his cheek with her free hand, causing him to jump with the slight contact. "Doctor..." she whispered.

"I'm alright. I'm always alright," the Doctor responded, almost robotically.

"No. No, you're not," she scolded. And then more quietly she added, "And it's okay. It's okay to not be alright. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She began softly stroking his cheek, unaware of how just like him she sounded. Rose found that she was grieving the TARDIS almost as much as the Doctor was. "I loved her, too, ya know," she whispered, as more tears began to fall.

With that, the mask slid off his face, and the stony expression contorted into one of immense pain and sorrow as he leaned into her hand and allowed a few stray tears of his own. Without thinking, she stood on her toes and wiped them away before his free hand even twitched. There was something about seeing him looking so vulnerable that struck a chord in her.

"It's not that, Rose. I mean, I'm upset about the Old Girl. I really am. I don't like what that may mean. I'm terrified of it, actually. But that's not..." his voice trailed off, as a few more tears strayed down his cheek.

"Doctor?" Rose was very concerned. The Doctor _never_ cried. Never!

"I..." he took a deep breath. "I almost lost you!" The last bit came out as almost a whisper.

She untangled her hand from his, and putting her arm around him instead, gently led him over to sit on a nearby bench that was ironically at the same spot where his clamp would have been if they were in the other universe. Upon sitting, he collapsed into her arms, and rested his head on her shoulder. A loud moan escaped his lips, and he began to shudder as sobs racked his entire body. She wrapped both of her arms around him tightly and rubbed his back in small circles with one hand while her other hand stroked his head, fingers tangling with his hair.

"I'm here, my Doctor. I'm here," she soothed.

She kissed him on the forehead and rocked him gently as he cried, and cried, and cried. They had never done this before. _He_ was usually the one comforting _her._ Though it pained her greatly to see her usually strong, courageous, and unflappable Time Lord so broken, she also was beyond humbled to be allowed this moment. Her Doctor needed her, and she was more than willing to oblige. She cried quietly, too, their tears mixing with her completely ruined mascara on her light blue jumper. It, too, was now ruined, but she found that she really didn't care. Whether their shared tears were of relief that they were still together, grief over losing the TARDIS, or just the shock of the day wearing off, they didn't know. But it really didn't matter, either.

After awhile, they both calmed, their grief over losing their beloved space and timeship settling in their stomachs as dread. What was going to happen now? Being trapped in an alternate universe was terrifying enough, but without the TARDIS, it was almost unbearable. What would they do? Where would they go? This was worse than when they thought they lost the TARDIS on the Sanctuary base on that impossible planet orbiting the black hole. At least then, they had a little bit of hope of finding her again. They continued to cling tightly to each other. At least they were not alone.

"I'm never gonna leave you," Rose whispered. The Doctor just clung to her tighter.

After awhile, the Doctor broke the silence. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Rose pulled back from their embrace to look him in the eye. "Whatcha sorry for? You've got nothing to apologize for. If anything, I'm the one who's sorry. If I'd only held onto that stupid lever..."

"Rose," the Doctor interrupted, holding her face in his hands, his voice hoarse from all of the screaming and crying. "Hear this, and hear this now. None of this is your fault, okay? What you did back there, what you did was nothing short of brilliant. Jumping into action like that, fixing the lever. You single-handedly saved the universe!"

"But if I'd only held on just a second longer..."

"Rose, it was amazing and a miracle that you'd held on as long as you did! Not even I could have held on!"

"But..."

"But nothing! Look! It's not your fault, okay?"

After a few beats, Rose calmly and quietly said, "It's not yours, either."

He didn't believe her, and she knew it.

-DW-

The ride to the mansion was very quiet indeed. No one felt like talking. Pete had attempted a conversation a couple of times, but was met with one word responses from Rose, and barely a grunt from the Doctor.

The entire trip, the Doctor kept his death grip on Rose's hand. It was as if she was the only thing that kept him grounded. Her hand hurt, and it was likely going to bruise, he was squeezing it so tightly, but she didn't mind, really. After all, even though she was now trapped in a different universe, other than a few friends she wasn't really that close to, she hadn't really lost anyone. In fact, she had actually _gained_ loved ones!

Even the TARDIS, whom she really did love, was not as much of a loss to her as it was to him. She would miss the traveling and the way the ship took care of her like the big sister she'd never had (if your big sister was a sentient time and spaceship, that is), but the Doctor had lost everything he had ever had, everything but Rose. The TARDIS was not just a ship to him. She was his oldest and dearest friend. She was the only thing he had left of his home. She _was_ his home! To make matters worse, Rose knew that the Doctor and the TARDIS had a mental connection of some sort. She wasn't sure how that worked, exactly, but the Doctor had told her once that it was that bond that kept him sane in the days immediately following the Time War. Rose knew that she could never make up for all that he had lost today, but that didn't mean that she couldn't try!

Pete gave them their own private guest suite with two bedrooms (each with their own loo), a small lounge/dining area, a large walk-in wardrobe, and even a tiny kitchen. The two bedroom suite was selected just for them by Pete. He was a smart man and knew that it was likely that only one of the beds would ever be used. But he also suspected that Jackie would at least like the illusion that her daughter was not shacking up with an alien. Under any other circumstances, Rose would have found their suite to be adorable and quite cozy, but circumstances being such as they were, she hardly noticed.

After Pete left them with a promise of shopping for clothes and other essentials the next day with his unlimited credit card and getting the Doctor into Torchwood so that he can possibly connect with the TARDIS, and after a brief, albeit tense, greeting with Jackie so she knew they had arrived, Rose looked at the bed in the room to the left of the living area longingly. She was so exhausted.

For the first time since their conversation at Torchwood, the Doctor spoke. His voice was hoarse from all of the screaming and crying that day. "Go ahead. I'll just..." he dropped her hand and slowly started to walk to the room on the right.

Rose immediately felt a sense of loss. She hesitated for only a second, and then, "You know, if you get lonely or something..." He turned and looked at her, hopefully. "You don't snore, do you?" she teased him lightly. She was rewarded with a faint ghost of a smile. It wasn't much, but it was the most she'd seen since they were trapped.

"I don't," came the reply.

"Well, get in here, then." She gave him a small smile in return.

After a quick stop in the en suite so Rose could remove her make-up ("Blimey! I really need to invest in waterproof mascara. I look like a racoon!") and brush their teeth with the spare toothbrushes and toothpaste the Doctor always carried in his pockets, together they prepared for bed. They took off their shoes and socks, and, not having any nightclothes to speak of, they climbed into bed almost fully dressed. The Doctor had removed his suit jacket and tie, and Rose her ruined jumper, leaving the white vest top underneath. Rose was nervous. They had shared a bed before many times when they traveled, but this felt different, somehow.

At first, they both laid on their backs, staring at the ceiling with space between them. Soon, however, Rose felt the Doctor's fingers hesitantly brush hers as if needing reassurance that she was still there. Emboldened by his apparent need to touch her, she rolled onto her side and snuggled into his, laying her head on his chest directly between both of his hearts. He tensed up at first, but very soon he relaxed and protectively wrapped his arm around her with what sounded like a contented sigh.

After a few more minutes of comfortable silence, the Doctor spoke. "Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"I mean it. I don't know what I'd do without you right now."

"You're still welcome." Her voice was full of mirth.

"Seriously. I... I'd go insane right now if it weren't for you. The TARDIS, well, my connection to her is diminished. I can still feel her, but it's like there's static in the way. I know that you may not be able to understand, but Time Lords were telepathic in nature. We might not have been able to hear each other's thoughts, but there was always an awareness in the back of our minds that reminded us that we were not alone. After the Time War, that connection was lost. All I had left was the TARDIS. She kept me sane. Time Lords are not meant to be alone in our own heads, you see. Now I've all but lost her as well, and I'm... I'm scared, Rose. Terrified, actually."

Rose knew that he must be scared if he was admitting to it. "You're not alone, Doctor. There's me. Forever, yeah?"

"You really mean that? I mean, I can't take you traveling anymore. Not without her. You don't have to keep your promise." His voice was practically mournful.

Rose lifted her head from his chest and looked him in the eyes. "Now hear this, Time Lord. I can't say that it doesn't matter to me that we can't travel anymore, because I'll miss it, miss _her_. But don't you think even for a moment that I'm going to leave you just because of it. If I just wanted to travel and see the stars, I could've gone off with any number of the so-called 'pretty boys' we encountered along the way. Part of the joy of traveling, indeed, most of it, was traveling with you. You... you matter to me. A great deal. I meant what I said moments before all hell broke loose: I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never gonna leave you!"

He was silent for a moment, then, swallowing the lump that had just formed in his throat he said, "You... you matter to me, too, Rose."

She smiled at him, teasingly. "'Course I do!" Then in a more serious tone she asked, "Is there anything I can do to help you? With the bond thing?"

He hesitated, not sure how she would take what he was about to say. Rose misintrepted his silence, however, and gave him an out. "Never mind. It's probably beyond the capabilities of a stupid ape, anyway."

"You're not a stupid ape, Rose. I'm so very sorry I ever called you that." His voice was gentle and soft, stirring feelings inside her that she had felt before but had always tried to bury. She didn't know what to say to that, so she didn't say anything at all.

After a few more minutes of silence, "Doctor?"

"Yes, Rose?"

"How _did_ you end up here, anyway? Last I saw you, you were still holding onto the clamp when I lost my grip."

"I slipped," He said, very quickly. Rose could tell it was a lie immediately.

"Doctor... You can tell me. You can tell me anything, you know."

He fell silent, and Rose feared that he wasn't going to answer her at all. But then, he did. "I... I saw a potential time line Rose. One where I lost you and was left all alone with no one but the TARDIS for company. I saw that potential becoming reality and realized I wanted nothing to do with it! So I..." he swallowed. "So I, I..." He took a deep breath. "Iletgoandjumpedafteryou." This last bit was said in a hurried whisper.

Rose wasn't sure she'd heard him correctly. Surely she hadn't. "Could you repeat that, this time a little bit more slowly?"

He took a deep breath, and tried again. "I let go and came after you."

Rose was shocked! So she had heard him correctly! "But... you didn't know that Pete was going to come through, did you? You thought I was heading for the Void, didn't you?"

"I didn't know how, but I knew you'd end up here," his voice was very quiet and timid, like a child caught doing something wrong.

"So, you're telling me that you chose to jump after me and join me in my fate, even though you had no way of knowing that we'd both end up here or how to get back?!"

"...Yes. I crashed into Pete about a half second after you did and grabbed onto him as he carried you here."

"You chose to give up the TARDIS for me." She started to cry _again._ "Why would you do something stupid like that?!"

"WHY'D YOU COME BACK?!" The Doctor surprised even himself with the intensity of his outburst. The resulting silence was deafening.

After about a minute, he cleared his throat, and then in a more reasonable tone continued, "You could've had everything you've ever wanted. Your Mum, a Dad, riches, Mickey... Granted you have all those things now, but do you realize that if you had not let go of the lever that you would have lost it all? Forever?!"

"Yes. But if I'd stayed, I would've lost you." She tried, but failed to keep the tremor out of her voice.

"Exactly," the Doctor said, pleading with her to understand.

"Doctor," her voice grew soft as the implications of not what he'd said, but what he hadn't said sank in. She raised her voice again. "But... but you're the one who sent me away in the first place!"

"Because you would have been safer without me!" he yelled. Rose gasped. Then in a quieter voice, the Doctor apologetically continued. "I needed you to be safe. I convinced myself in that moment that I could live without you if I knew that you were safe. It probably would have hit me afterwards that I was never going to see you again."

"Bet you're glad I came back, then," she teased, tongue appearing at the corner of her grin.

"Oh, Rose Tyler, you have no idea. I've had many companions. And no one's ever... No one! Choose me over their family? Never! I just hope you don't regret your choice."

"I won't. And... and I hope that you don't regret yours," she replied, quietly.

"I won't."

"You sure about that, Doctor? I mean, the TARDIS, she was all you ever had. What if you never make it back to her? What if you're stuck on the slow path with me forever?"

"Stuck with you ain't so bad," the Doctor used her own words from Krop Tor.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."


	3. Chapter 3

**Happy Monday everyone! Posting this week's update in the evening rather than while on my lunch break to see if I get any more traffic. Why hasn't anyone reviewed? I mean, I don't like to beg, but really. If this story is good, let me know. If it is bad, also let me know. I can take it!**

CHAPTER 3

 _STARWATCH: VITEX FOUNDER FINDS DEAD WIFE ALIVE, DAUGHTER AND BEAU IN TOW_

 _Vitex founder Pete Tyler's household has recently added three new members. The multi-billionare was recently spotted with his new brood at the shopping mall with a woman who strongly resembles his late wife, Jacqueline Tyler, and another younger couple. Close family friend Rickey Smith confirms that the woman is indeed his wife, back from the dead, or so it seems. Apparently, Mrs. Tyler had run away after the metal men crashed her birthday party, and was only presumed dead. Remains were never found. But, interestingly, what was found was the Tyler's long-lost daughter, Rose, who the couple had secretly given up for adoption, twenty years ago, before Pete created Vitex and made himself a household name all over the world. Rose is a beautiful blonde bombshell, but back off, boys! It would appear that Ms. Tyler is taken. Accompanying her is the mysterious Dr. John Smith, a scientist of some kind. Next to nothing is known about him, but yours truly will be finding out everything there is to know and post it here first. So stay tuned for updates. -_ Ms. Donna Noble, contributor, for StarWatch.

"That Donna Noble's always a good read," Pete Tyler intoned as he looked over the shoulder of Jackie, who was reading the gossip rag. "I'm surprised that she hadn't cottened on to you all's sudden appearance sooner."

"I always used to love reading the celebrity gossip back in the other universe," Jackie sighed. "Bit different when you're the one in it."

"Don't let it bother ya, love. It's just a bit of fun. They don't mean anything by it." Pete chuckled. "I've actually met Ms. Noble a couple of times. Feisty thing. Ginger. Loud. She once told me that she actually hates her job, because she hates intruding on celebrities and their personal business, but the pay is good. She's just doing it until something better comes along. I think she was hoping I'd offer her a job, honestly."

Jackie just sniffed in response. Rose, who had just come into the sitting room from the kitchen with a fresh cuppa, asked, "Why dontcha offer her one, then?"

"To go from writing celebrity rags to selling Vitex from door-to-door? Who'd want to do that? That's the only position I had at the time," he replied.

"What about Torchwood?" suggested Rose.

It had been a little over a month since Canary Wharf, and with the Doctor's help, Pete had almost completely reformed Torchwood overnight. The Doctor had been reluctant to help at first, but upon learning that this universe had no UNIT, he had very quickly decided to help Pete transform his agency into this universe's equivalent. Plus, it gave him almost unlimited access to all of the alien tech he could ever want or need, including some bits and bobs that he cobbled together into some very impressive technology aimed at finding a way back to the TARDIS.

"I don't think so," Pete replied to his newfound daughter's suggestion. "The last thing we need right now is an inexperienced nobody mucking things up."

"Hey!" Rose shouted, affronted. "For your information, I was an inexperienced nobody when the Doctor found me. Silly little shop girl with barely a penny to her name, and no A-Levels either."

"You went to school in the States?"

"No. London."

"Oh, they only do A-Levels in the United States of Great Britain, in this universe. Here, you just get a high school diploma."

Now Jackie was stunned. She threw down her magazine."The United States of what? This isn't just a parallel universe. This is bloody opposite land!" Ignoring Rose, she stormed out of the room.

Rose stared sadly after her mother. Their relationship had gone from chilly immediately after Canary Wharf to downright frigid in the weeks since. Rose knew that her Mum was still upset at how everything had gone down, but didn't she understand that Rose loved her still? She'd love to tell her that, but Jackie never gave them a chance to.

"Don't worry, love. She'll come round, eventually," Pete told her.

Rose huffed. "Sorry, Pete. You keep forgetting that my Mum is almost but not exactly the same as your late wife. Let me tell you, no one can hold a grudge like Jackie Tyler!"

He laughed. "That, my dear, is true no matter which universe she originates from! Though it is true that there are some slight differences between them. My first Jackie would never get obsessed over a show on the telly. Fashion magazine, maybe. But never a telly show. And now this Jackie goes on and on and on about some show that I don't think we even have in this universe! East, East Wing... Eastern... Something."

Rose laughed. "Eastenders. Blimey. She used to watch that show religiously, and then when I'd come home to visit, she'd start talking about the characters on the show as if they were real people and as if I knew what she was talking about." She laughed again, and then sighed. "I used to dread those conversations. Now... I miss her. I wish she'd talk to me."

"About a show on the telly?"

"About anything, I guess. I just wish she'd forgive me for choosing the Doctor over her. I know it hurt her, but can't she see that it hurt me as well, and that this... this whatever it is, is hurting me?" Unbidden tears welled in her eyes.

"Hey, none of that," her would-be father chided. "I hope you know that even though your mother isn't talking to you right now, you can always talk to me. I don't have much experience with being a dad, but I've always wanted to be one, and I'd like to try, if that's alright."

She smiled at him, albeit weakly. "Thanks," she sniffed. "And I don't have much experience having a dad, so whatever you do will be amazing in comparison."

"Perhaps we'll learn this whole dad thing together."

"Yeah, perhaps we will." She smiled again, and found it returned by Pete.

"So, I was wondering, besides no Eastenders and the name of the States and such, what other differences have you seen between the universes?" he inquired.

"Well, the big thing is that we're still a monarchy back home with a queen, princesses, and such," Rose remarked.

"Really?"

"Yeah, Queen Elizabeth II is still on the throne in her eighties. She's reigned for over fifty years. Her eldest son is Prince Charles, and her eldest grandson is Prince William. That's the line of succession so far. Though, they're really just figureheads, they don't really make laws and such anymore. That's up to the Prime Minister and Parliament."

"Very interesting! Here, we abolished the monarchy with King George and the revolution in the colonies. Had a revolution of our own, we did. That's how the States are still part of Britain."

"Wow! That's... very different! I was wondering how that happened. That's a pretty major historical difference."

Pete nodded.

"Other things I've noticed are just little things," Rose continued. "Like, some foods taste different. Back home, my favorite food was chips. Here, chips, or rather, I guess it's the potatoes, taste like carrots, and carrots taste like chips."

"That's why you've been munching like a rabbit, then."

"It's much more figure friendly," Rose laughed. "Oh, and peaches taste like apples, apples taste like bananas..."

"And bananas taste like pears!" interrupted the horrified voice of the Doctor, who had just burst in the front door from who knows where he'd been, and immediately ran off to the loo to gargle with mouthwash to get the horrible taste out of his mouth.

Pete just stared after him with a bemused expression, while Rose laughed quietly, picked up the remainder of the Doctor's hastily discarded fruit, shrugged, and munched away.

-DW-

With each passing day, the Doctor's frustration grew. His devices had been able to track a substantial number of tears in the fabric of reality, but they either quickly healed themselves, or were too small for anything to pass through, or both. Several times, the Doctor had had to travel to one location or the other to manually heal the tears with his sonic screwdriver.

He began clocking longer and longer hours in the lab, desperation driving him towards obsession. At first, Rose would spend her days at his side, handing him this or that, or just talking with him while he worked like they used to. But as the Doctor began to work well before dawn, and continued to work until well after the sun went down, Rose had grown increasingly weary, and stayed with him for only a few hours at a time before she left.

She was worried about him. Oh, she knew that he had to get back to the TARDIS, and while she strongly encouraged his efforts, she had to admit that she missed him. Which was silly, really, because they saw each other everyday. But Rose couldn't remember the last time that they had had a meaningful conversation, except maybe in the darkness on their first night here. Rose had thought that after that first night, despite everything, they might have actually turned a corner in their relationship. But when she awoke the next morning, she'd found him to be as distant as ever, and that distance only seemed to be growing.

But that wasn't really what bothered her the most. The Doctor simply did not look good. He had lost some weight, his face took on a haggard appearance, his eyes grew dull, and he hadn't shaved since he arrived. _In fact,_ Rose mused to herself, _he is really starting to resemble that bloke, DI Hardy, I saw on the news last night, who has been investigating that horrible child murder over in Broadchurch._ He had appeared to crumple in upon himself, and it broke Rose's heart. She wanted to help him, but she had never felt so helpless before in her entire life.

But that didn't mean that she couldn't try.

"Doctor?" Rose knocked on the door to the loo where the Doctor was still gargling.

The Doctor spat. "Yeah?"

"Please don't tell me that you're going back tonight."

"I have to. Rose, did you know that two gaps opened last night while I was here? Gaps that looked as if they were large enough and just stable enough? But they had closed by the time I got there this morning. I can't afford to miss another!" His pleading eyes bore into her, begging for her to understand.

"Isn't there some way you can make your devices portable, and bring everything you need here? Or, I dunno, maybe you can cobble together some kind of alarm or something? I know why you're obsessed with this, but you're starting to scare me! When was the last time you had a proper meal? When was the last time you bathed? Or when was the last time you even looked in a bloody mirror?! I'm worried about you, Doctor!" Her eyes began to shine with unshed tears.

The Doctor raised his head to look at her reflection over his shoulder in the mirror, too afraid and ashamed to look at her directly. He gasped when he saw his own face. Oh, he knew it was bad, but he didn't realize it was _this_ bad!

"Rose, I... Rose, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. And Rose, I think I need help. Will you help me?"

Slowly, she walked forward and placed her hand on his shoulder. "You don't even need to ask. What can I do?"

"First, I think I need to build that alarm you suggested. But after that... the TARDIS always used to help me with things like this. I'm real rubbish at taking care of myself, especially when I'm focused on a task. I..." his voice trailed of.

"You want me to take care of you?" Rose asked, quietly.

"I'm not asking you to mother me, per se, but, the TARDIS always used to produce a sandwich or something next to me when I needed to eat, and sometimes when things got real bad, she'd rearrange the rooms so no matter where I went, the only room I could get to was my bedroom when she thought I needed sleep. I guess I've grown dependent on her... doing that."

"So you want me to bring you lunch and force you to sleep somehow?" she queried. "I think I can manage that," she teased, tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth.

"Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that I've become obsessed. It's just that I... well, I... I'm scared, Rose!"

Rose wrapped her arms around him in a hug. Oh, it felt so good to have him back, even if he was a good bit skinnier and scruffier than usual. "I understand. And I'm the one who's sorry, Doctor. I should've offered to help you sooner." She dropped her embrace, and turned him to face her. "Alrighty then, how long will it take for you to make an alarm thingy?"

"I dunno. Maybe an hour?" He shrugged.

"Then go. Make the alarm. And I'll pick you up in an hour. And when you come home, I'll be sure to have quite a dinner spread for you. Then you're gonna shower, and shave, and you, Mister," she said, poking him in the chest, "are going to sleep tonight!"

"Home?" the Doctor queried.

Rose hadn't even caught what she'd said. "I meant when you come back."

"But you said 'home'! This isn't home, Rose! Home is not in this universe!"

Rose was silent for a moment, then quietly replied, "Maybe home for me is not a place, Doctor. It's a person. You. You're home."

The Doctor could only stare, gobsmacked, after her as she turned and walked out the room.

-DW-

The Doctor's dinner that night was carryout: fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, cole slaw, warm dinner rolls, and of course, carrots for Rose. But it was the homemade dessert that really made the Doctor's day.

"Why, Rose! I do believe this apple crisp tastes like bananas!" he grinned. The expression warmed Rose's heart. It was a long way from the warm smiles that she had known, but it was more than she had seen from him in weeks.

After dinner, and a shower and a shave, the Doctor set up his newly constructed Void alarm. Confident now that he wouldn't miss another viable gap, he changed into his pyjamas. But he was hesitant as he approached Rose.

His head was so empty without the TARDIS.

-DW-

The Doctor lied in bed, exhausted, with a warm pink and yellow human curled up next to him and snoring softly. But try as he might, he just could not join her in sleep. He tried solving every single complicated mathematical equation that he could think of. He tried closing his eyes and lying very still. He even resorted to the lowly human method of counting sheep. Still, he lied there, staring at the ceiling, completely wide awake.

This was not a matter of Time Lords not needing much sleep, nor of him pushing back his sleep cycle. This was insomnia, pure and simple. He had not had insomnia this bad since just after the Time War, when the nightmares kept him awake for months before he finally keeled over in the console room mid-flight. Luckily, the TARDIS had seen it coming and materialized a mattress and pillow, breaking his fall. It was a good thing she had, or Rose would have likely met a man in pinstripes instead of leather.

Rose. She had been such a balm to his weary soul, and helped him in ways that she would likely never know. The first time the Ninth Doctor was actually able to fall asleep in his own bed was the first night that she had spent on board. Over time, the frequency of his nightmares had decreased. Frustratingly, the Tenth Doctor realized that those dreams were replaced by dreams of a completely different variety, and they all starred the human who was sleeping peacefully in his arms.

But everything changed at Canary Wharf. Though one could say that the change actually began at Krop Tor with the beast's frighteningly accurate assessments, and especially his proclamation of "the Valiant Child who would die in battle." He had been tense, and on edge since then. He was able to sleep, but it was fitful. He was certain that she would be snatched away from him at any given moment, and she almost was. Doubtlessly, Rose was declared dead in the original universe. Could this have been what the beast meant? The Doctor wished that he could know for sure.

He also wished that that was the only worry keeping him awake. Canary Wharf had changed everything in an instant. He lost the TARDIS: his beloved ship, as Rose had noted earlier, his last tie to Gallifrey, had become his home, and was his oldest friend in every sense of the word. When he lost her, he had also lost his way of life: he could no longer up and go wherever or whenever he pleased. He had lost his identity. Who was he if he could no longer fly around in his TARDIS and defend the universe?

How much longer would it be until he was trapped here forever? Even now, his mental connection with his brilliant ship was so strained that his mind physically ached with the effort of reaching her. What if all the gaps closed for good? What would he do, then?

Suddenly, his mind was filled, unbidden, with images of Rose. Actually, he realized, they were images of him and Rose together: the two of them, working for Torchwood, running hand in hand from the latest creature that invaded Pete's World, and emerging victorious. Of Rose, in an elegant white dress, clasping hands with him and proclaiming vows of forever. Of himself playing on the floor with a young, blonde haired girl who called him "Daddy," while Rose, heavily pregnant with another child, cooked dinner. It was horribly domestic, and yet, the Doctor found that the images fill him with an inexplicable joy.

Yet, his joy was tempered with grief, for he knew exactly who had sent him those images. "Thank you, Old Girl," he whispered. _If only I didn't feel that you were telling me goodbye._

He still couldn't sleep, but at least he felt at peace.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry that this chapter is almost an entire week late. Where I used to be a couple of chapters ahead in the writing, I'm now only just one. It's not writer's block, just a lack of time. Not much happening in this chapter, but we will start a new adventure next chapter, that I hope will be a welcome respite from the angst.**

 **Doctor Who still isn't mine. Too bad.**

CHAPTER 4

Jackie Tyler would not admit it to anyone, but she was secretly glad that the Doctor had not yet found a way back to the old universe. Especially since there was now no way that she could return to her old life, waiting alone at home in the Powell Estates while her daughter and her alien galavanted across the universe doing who knows what in that box of his. She enjoyed her new home and lifestyle too much. She enjoyed Pete too much, if she was completely honest with herself.

But she missed her daughter. She knew that she was being very stubborn, and that was why Rose was distant from her. But the truth of the matter was that she had been deeply hurt by her daughter's rejection. Oh, she knew that Rose hadn't really rejected her. She had just chosen her future, as well as she should, and it just so happened that Jackie had almost not become part of that future. If Rose hadn't come close to _dying_ (no not dying, but a fate worse than death - being trapped in the Void, otherwise known as _hell_ , and doesn't that just make it worse!) then Rose would not be here right now.

No, Jackie reasoned, she wasn't upset that Rose had chosen the Doctor over her. She was upset that Rose had chosen _death_ over her! Indeed, it was Jackie who saved her daughter's life that day. If she hadn't nagged and nagged and nagged Pete to jump back through one last time and snatch Rose away (granted, it was for purely selfish purposes, but that is beside the point, really), Rose, and possibly the Doctor, would be dead right now.

And how do they thank Jackie and Pete for their extended life? By moping and whining about how they are now trapped here and can't get back to their precious TARDIS. Oh, she can understand the Doctor moping after the ship, but Rose? And did either of them even say, "By the way, thank you for saving us, Pete,"? No. They didn't. Jackie didn't raise her daughter to be an ungrateful sod.

It's no matter, really. She had Pete now, and a life beyond her wildest dreams. Not to mention, Jackie was fairly sure that she was pregnant. She hadn't told anyone yet, and she hadn't taken any tests or anything, but she had missed her cycle this month and had trouble keeping down food most mornings.

Sure, it could just be stress, her body adjusting to life in another universe, or even menopause (perish the thought!) but Jackie hoped that that wasn't the case. She had always wanted another child. But having another child at her age? She was a mixed bag of emotions. Pete would be thrilled, no doubt. But Rose... Jackie was uncertain as to what her elder child would think.

Said elder child was blissfully ignorant of an imminent younger sibling's arrival, working obsessively on the dimension hoppers and reading heavy tomes on physics and mechanics. She was determined to do this on her own, without the Doctor's help. In all of their travels together, he had always been the brilliant one, while she was the assistant, the sidekick, the one who was always dependent on him. Never again. No, Rose mused, when they returned to the TARDIS and their old life (and they would, of this she had no doubts), they would return as if not equals, then at least on much more even footing.

Rose Tyler was no slouch. While it was true that she had left the Doctor's side now more often than not, she didn't just go home and pine for him, either. Rose was a Tyler, and Tylers were not apt to sit around and let other people do their work for them. Tylers worked. Like Pete refused to let others build Torchwood, and Jackie refused to have help around the house; Rose refused to let the Doctor solve their problem for her.

The Doctor had largely been working on detecting gaps between the universes and how they would get across the Void if a gap opened. Rose decided to work on a project of her own: if all of the gaps closed for good, did they have a back-up plan, something that might still get them across after the gaps closed? She worked with the dimension hoppers that Pete, Mickey, and Jake had used to cross earlier. While it was true that they no longer worked, that didn't mean that they would never work again, either. She called her project a dimension cannon, an upgrade from the hoppers that would have a targeting capability, allowing them to pinpoint where they'd like to land. Ideally, it would be able to transport them through the Void without punching a hole and destroying either universe. Pete throroughly approved of this project and promised to keep it a secret from the Doctor and Jackie - especially Jackie. The Doctor might praise her and call her clever, but Jackie, no doubt, would be very angry.

Rose thought that her plan was actually quite brilliant. She would spend a few hours every morning with the Doctor, appearing just to assist him by handing him tools and such like she used to, while subtlely asking him questions that would assist her in her own project. After a few hours passed, she would feign boredom and slip off to her own workshop where she would study and tinker until dinner was about ready. The Doctor was so wrapped up in his own work that he seemed to be none the wiser.

She wasn't sure why she wanted to keep it a secret from him, exactly. Maybe it was because she wanted something of her own; that if she told him, he would be butting in with tips and calculations and theories, and even though he likely wouldn't intend for it to happen, the project would cease to be hers. She also longed to amaze him. More than anything, she wanted to share with him how her secret project worked and how it could transport them home, gaps in the universe or no. She longed to see his jaw drop and for him to take her in his arms and draw lean into her and...

Ok, so maybe her reasons for wanting to keep it secret weren't entirely pure.

There had been a time, while they were traveling together, that she thought he loved her as much as she loved him. But ever since they became trapped here, the Doctor's only obsession was getting back to the TARDIS. Everything else became secondary, including eating, sleeping, and proper hygiene; the same things that she had addressed earlier.

Including Rose.

Rose had been working on her secret project for only about two weeks, so not much progress was made, though she had succeeded in making the jumpers transport a pen across the room. That was something, she guessed. It was a far cry from transporting a human and a Time Lord to another universe, but it was a step in the right direction. Maybe in time, it might at least become a good teleport, even if it doesn't work the way it was intended to.

But still, most of her days were filled with tedium. She missed her life on the TARDIS. No. It was more than that. She missed her life with the Doctor. Odd, that, since he was right there with her.

-DW-

The Doctor didn't come home that night. Rose wasn't worried at first. The Doctor had often worked late, and it was getting worse, despite the new monitor that he had at home. But when midnight came and went, and there was still no sign of him, Rose went off in search of him.

"Take that, Dalek scum! You're not going to take her, you understand? I am the Doctor, the Oncoming Storm, and you will listen to me. Leave this planet, and I might spare your lives..."

Rose heard him yelling at the end of the hall. Her heart stuttered and her breath froze. Daleks? Here? In Torchwood? She ran to his assistance, not knowing what she could do, but determined that he would not have to fight alone.

She burst through the doors of the lab to see the Doctor holding his sonic screwdriver out and doing battle with... a garbage can?

She tried not to laugh. "Doctor?" she ventured.

"Get back, Rose! Or he'll exterminate you!"

"Doctor, there's no one here!"

"Don't you see that Dalek in the corner?"

"You mean this?" She walked over, picked up the garbage can and raised it over her head. The Doctor looked at her in shock and amazement.

"It's just a garbage can, Doctor." His face fell.

"It is, isn't it? Oh, this is bad, bad, bad, bad! I was sure it was a Dalek. I must be hallucinating. I haven't hallucinated like this since the War. I knew I was overdoing it, but this is BAD Rose!"

"Why dontcha stop brandishing the sonic like a weapon, and we'll talk about it."

He sheepishly withdrew his sonic screwdriver and put it back in his pocket. "Oh. Yeah."

"What's going on, Doctor? Did you know that it's after midnight? Why are you hallucinating?"

The Doctor heavily sat down in his desk chair and put his face in his hands, running his fingers through his hair in frustration, leaving it a tousled mess. "Sleep, Rose. I need to sleep."

"Been pushing back your cycle again?"

"No, it's more than that. It's not that I don't want to sleep. It's that I... I can't."

"You have insomnia?"

"Yes," he hissed in frustration. "I haven't slept in a long time."

"How long's a long time?" Rose was afraid she knew what the answer was but hoped and prayed that she was wrong.

She wasn't. "Krop Tor. I have not slept since the night we got back to the TARDIS after Krop Tor."

Rose remembered that adventure very vividly. It had been a very trying adventure, what with thinking that they lost the TARDIS and dealing with possessed Ood and a beast that Rose was certain was the devil incarnate even though she never saw it herself. Not to mention that they were in orbit around a bloody black hole, an impossibility in and of itself. Sleep had been a welcome respite for them both.

But that was almost three months ago, linear time!

"You know that I don't have to sleep often, so I didn't for awhile. Didn't need to after the Olympics, for example. But then the ghosts came and we were at Canary Wharf, and everything happened so fast.." his voice trailed off, helpless. He looked up at her, pleading her to understand.

"And you haven't been able to sleep since we got here, because your mind is empty without the TARDIS' constant presence," Rose stated. He nodded. "And now you are so sleep deprived that you are seeing things that aren't there. But you've been coming home every night, well except for tonight, and lying beside me all night. You mean to tell me you've just been lying awake all night?"

He nodded.

She sighed. "What can I do to help?"

"I need the TARDIS."

"I understand that, and I want that more than anything. But that is not an option at the moment. It is obvious that you need sleep. Can't anything be done?"

He just looked at her, helpless, his exhaustion evident in the lines of his face.

"What specifically is keeping you awake? Is it the fact you can't feel her like you used to, or is it that you feel her intermittently? Is it pain in her absence, or is it fear that you'll lose her altogether? Or a combination of all of these?"

He shrugged and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. "Combination, I guess. Of all of it."

Rose reached out and touched his arm sympathetically. "Is there any way I can help with any of it? Even if... even if I enter your mind somehow? I mean, I don't even know if I can. But I want to. If it will help you. I want to."

He looked at her long and hard. "Do you realize that you've basically just propositioned me?"

"I... what?! No, I didn't... mean it... like that... I just meant... oh..." The Doctor found that her blushing and stammering was adorable, and to his own surprise, he wasn't altogether unopposed to the idea. Quite the opposite of that, actually. Now, that is a development!

Rose regained her composure - a little. "So, do you have to... you know," she said, gesturing between the two of them awkwardly, "in order to have someone in your mind?"

Now it was the Doctor's turn to blush and stammer. "No, we don't have to... to _dance,_ per se... not that we're unable to... or anything..." here he coughed a little awkwardly and tugged at his ear a bit like he always did when nervous, "but... bonding is a very... _intimate_ experience... much like... _that_."

"So, it's like mind sex?"

Now the Doctor really did cough! And his face turned even redder than before. Rose had never seen him this embarrased before, and it was kind of adorable. She wondered at the reasoning behind his embarrassment. Could it be that he actually... no, it couldn't be that. He's a mighty Time Lord, and she's a lowly ape.

When he recovered from his coughing fit, he replied, "Actually, it's a bit more intimate than that, even. You humans seem to be able to have that kind of relationship casually. I mean, just look at our old friend Captain Jack."

Rose had to agree. Almost everyone she knew had had casual sex, but Jack had taken it to a completely different level!

The Doctor continued. "With bonding, it's a bit different. There's nothing casual about it. It's more like the ancient human tradition of human courtship. There's a basic surface level that's kind of like the first date. It establishes a temporary connection. Then there's a deeper level of a long-term relationship. It is still basically a surface level, where you can sense each other's immediate thoughts and emotions, but it is permament. Then there's a kind of engagement level where we can see each other's memories and learn some of each other's secrets. This is also permament. Then the final level has no real human equivalent; the closest to it would be marriage, but with no divorce possible. This permament bonding actually merges the two of our souls together so tightly that we can't find where one of us ends and the other begins. We'd know absolutely everything about each other, and would mentally be one unit. We'd still live individual lives on the outside, but on the inside, we'd be as one."

Somewhere along the lines of this explanation, the Doctor realized that he was no longer just talking hypothetically about two individuals who might bond, but he was talking about _them_ \- himself and Rose. To his own amazement, he realized that he wanted this, all of it, with her!

Rose must've seen something in his gaze, because she grew very quiet for a few moments. Then, taking a deep breath, she said, "So, what you are saying is that I wasn't so much as propositioning you right now, but _proposing_ to you!"

Their eyes met. What they each saw there was unexplainable, but what wasn't being said was clear: they wanted this. They both did.

"Rose..." he started, but then seemed unable to find words. "Rose, you don't know what you're asking. This is not something that you enter into lightly. This would be permament! Your mind would be linked with mine forever."

"So we'd never be apart, yeah?"

"Rose... I'm not saying that I wouldn't want that with you. I actually would, very much so. And not just because it would help me to sleep. But the human mind is not made to have someone else in it!"

"And your mind isn't made to be alone!" she countered, tears welling up in her eyes. "Please. I want to do this. Or at least try. You said that I might not even be able to do it, in which case, no harm, no foul. Is there a way that we can just, I don't know, do a test? Maybe just that basic surface level temporary thing where I can see if I can stand you being in my mind, or if I'm even capable of being in yours? Something that can give us a taste without being permament?"

He looked at her with awe and amazement. "You're serious about this."

"Yes, Doctor. I at least want to try."

He swallowed. "Okay, then."

"Okay?"

"We'll do it, but at least one of us will need to be well-rested before we do so. We'll try tomorrow after you've had a good night's rest."

"Doctor, I'm fine. You need the rest more than I do. And you can't get it until we do this, right? Why wait?" She stood up and held out her hand for him to take.

"Why, indeed?" He smiled at her, nervously, before accepting her hand. Together, they walked back to the mansion.

-DW-

The Doctor was nervous, Rose could tell. He couldn't stay still for more than 2 seconds at a time. First he checked the Void alarm, then he took a shower, then he checked the Void alarm again, then he paced the carpet back and forth while Rose took a shower, and then he checked the Void alarm again. He had begun another round of pacing when he felt Rose's gentle hand on his shoulder.

He turned to her, and guided her gently towards the bed. "You sure about this, Rose? Even the surface level that we are about to engage in is really intimate. In fact," and here he blushed. "This is my people's equivalent of sex."

Rose blushed at that, too, but she still nodded. "I am a little nervous though."

"It'll be ok, Rose," he said, raising his fingers up to her temples. Rose mirrored him. "You can close your eyes if you like. Now, you're going to feel me brush your mind. It's hard to explain what it feels like. You'll just feel me."

She did as she was told. "I feel you!"

"Good, good. Now that was the equivalent of a mental knock on the door. You have to let me in."

"How do I do that?"

"First, imagine all of the thoughts that you do not want me to see hidden behind a locked door. When they're secure, picture yourself walking to your front door and letting me in."

She did so. The sensation of him entering her mind took her breath away. She could feel him, really feel him inside her head. The first thing that she noticed were feelings of nervousness, and she immediately realized that those were not her own feelings, even though she was nervous.

"That nervousness, is... is that you?"

"Yes." she suddenly felt a burst of pride and amazement wash over her, emanating from the source of the previous feeling.

"Wow," she breathed. "It's incredible!"

She was still, letting his emotions wash over her as if they were her own. There was the aforementioned nervousness, pride, and amazement, but there was something else too; something underneath all the others, something rich and dense and wonderful. Before she knew it she was reaching out to it as she tried to learn more of what it was.

With a gasp of shock, the Doctor realized that Rose had entered his mind. She immediately withdrew, surprised at her own actions, and apologetically brushed her mind against his with the mental knocking he had described sooner. She brought with her all of her emotions of the moment: her nervousness, excitement, hope, and a little something more underneath that he couldn't quite grasp.

They both followed the source of the underlying emotion that they felt from the other, and reached it at the same instant. Because they were in each other's minds, they knew the instant that the other had made the discovery. Love. Love for the other. Both had concealed it behind a door, but it was so strong that it was leaking out, unable to be stopped. At this revelation, the locked doors suddenly burst open, and their mutual love rushed out like a whirlwind to meet the other. When the two forces met, they danced around each other and burst into flame, so great was the passion for the other.

The Doctor and Rose were so overcome by how deep the feelings ran, that they simultaneously burst into tears of joy, sobs racked both of their bodies, and their hands moved from each other's temples to around each other's waists as they clung to each other.

Slowly, reluctantly, the Doctor withdrew his mind from hers, and Rose followed his lead. It was supposed to be just a surface bond after all. Their eyes opened, and they stared at each other intensely, joy radiating from each.

"Hello," the Doctor whispered.

"Hello," Rose breathed, smiling shyly.

Without a moment's hesistation, their lips crashed into each other in a very passionate kiss. Rose was sure that she saw fireworks.

Rose fell asleep soon thereafter, too exhausted physically and mentally to do much else.

With a big goofy grin on his face, the Doctor layed down next to her, held her close and closed his eyes. And the Doctor finally slept.


	5. Chapter 5

**Here we take a little break from the angst, and head into what I hope will be a lighthearted and fun adventure! This chapter is a little bit shorter than the others, but it sets you up nicely for the adventure to follow!**

CHAPTER 5

Mary Sue had just downloaded the new game to her phone that morning, and already she had logged more kilometers walking around Cardiff than she usually did in an entire week. Forget going to the gym! This was so much better!

 _Pokemon Go_ might be a fad, but it certainly was a fun one. She had already caught a Bulbasaur (her starter) 2 or 3 Horseas, several Nidorans of both genders, a Jigglypuff, an Elkans, a Ghastly, a Meowth ("I'm just two evolutions away from being Team Rocket!"), Charmander, a handful of Oddishes and Caterpies, a couple Drowsees and Clefairies, and more Rattatas, Pidgeys, Weedles, Eevees, and Spearows than she could count. She had also hatched a Slowpoke and another Caterpie from eggs and was halfway through a 10k one that she was sure was going to be epic!

She had also proudly just claimed the Gym at Millennium Center for the blue team and had placed her evolved Flareon there to guard it, leveling up to level 20 in the process. Lower than she'd like to be, but not bad for only being able to play on Saturdays. All in all, it was a very good day!

Her phone buzzed. Another Pokemon was ready to be captured! "It's a Pikachu! Oh, I've always wanted a Pikachu!"

Something startled her, and she looked up from her phone for just a second. "What the...?"

"PIKACHU!"

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!"

 _-_ DW-

 _Ghosts. Cybermen. Daleks. Levers and white walls. Rose. Rose falling, falling, falling..._

"ROOOOOSE!" the Doctor screamed so loud that he woke himself up, panting, and covered in sweat.

Not surprisingly, his outburst had disturbed his bedmate, who, upon hearing her name burst from his lips, hurried to soothe him; to assure him that she was there and she was ok, and nothing would ever separate them again. She held him close, stroked his hair, kissed the top of his head, and whispered to him in soothing tones as the Doctor trembled like a leaf in her arms.

She didn't ask him what had happened. She didn't need to. The same nightmare had haunted her every night since Canary Wharf. She had just managed to hide it better than he did.

Well, that and she could actually see the dream herself. Peculiar, that. As she pondered how that was possible, she became aware of a light itching in the back of her mind. So, she did what anyone would do with any itch; she scratched it. This resulted in a loud gasp from the Doctor has he jerked his head to look up at her with great alarm.

"Rose, is that you?"

"Y-Yes?" She wasn't entirely sure, but she realized that that itch had something to do with him, and what had happened before they had fallen asleep.

Panic that was not her own suddenly flooded her system, and she suddenly understood.

"That itching in the back of my mind, that's you. You're still in my mind."

He nodded, eyes full of fear. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Rose! I went too deep into your mind last night! I've gone and bonded us! I've bound you to me forever! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I..."

"Shh," she shushed him by placing her finger over his lips. "Doctor, it's alright. Really it is. I don't mind. Really, I don't." She reinforced those feelings by reaching out to the piece of him in the back of her mind and surrounding it with as much love, comfort, and understanding as she could.

"But, Rose! This is permament! We'll always have to be together, now! Or at least always part of each other's lives! Otherwise we'll both have a horrible headache like you've never had before! The headache could kill you!" His panic was growing by the second, and was only outpaced by his guilt and self-deprecation.

"Doctor, it's alright. Really. Better than, actually." She took his face in her hands and forced him to look in her eyes so he could see as well as feel her sincerity. "Now maybe you'll believe me when I say I'm never gonna leave you. I want this. I have wanted this since you first said that it was possible. I want this, and I want you. Can't you feel how much I want this, and how much joy it gives me?"

He nodded, for he was as aware of her emotions as she was of his. "You really do want this? With me?" He looked at her with so much hope in his eyes, she couldn't say no, even if she wanted to.

"Doctor, despite what actually happened that day, I chose you over my Mum, my oldest friend/ ex-boyfriend, and a father who also happens to be rich enough to give me everything I've ever wanted. I willingly gave that all up to be with you. Because all I have ever wanted since the word run, is you. Not the traveling in the TARDIS. Not the adventures. Though those were most definitely a plus. You. Just you. How could you doubt that I would want this with you?"

He smiled at her then, albeit weakly. "So, how long ya gonna stay with me?"

Without hesitation, she replied, "Forever."

-DW-

The next time they woke, the sun was streaming through the window, making the room extremely bright. Humming contentedly, Rose snuggled deeper into the warmth and safety of the Doctor's arms, too comfortable to move. The Doctor, for his part, simply held her tighter. He was also too content to move, an odd sensation for him, especially in this body which never liked to be still for more than 5 seconds at a time.

 _Rose Tyler_ _is domesticating me, and frankly, I really don't care anymore. If this is domestic, then I want more,_ he thought to himself.

 _Careful, Doctor, it's a slippery slope, domestication. Next thing you know, you'll kiss me goodbye in the front yard of our modest suburban home with the white picket fence and ruffle the hair of our children before you drive off to your boring job at the office._ Rose giggled.

"Right, forgot you'll be able to read my thoughts now. That'll take some getting used to. And while we might be in a house at this moment, if I ever suggest getting one with a white picket fence or even consider taking a boring job in an office, shoot me. Better yet, find a Dalek and let them exterminate me. Twice. So none of that carries over into the next me."

Rose giggled again. "Don't worry. I wouldn't let you fall so far."

"Although," the Doctor continued, a mischevious grin plastered across his face, "the kiss goodbye as I leave for the day is not a bad idea," he said, kissing her softly. "Not bad at all."

She noticed that he didn't make any comment about their children, and she wisely didn't address that as she embraced him and kissed him fiercely in return. He really was a good kisser.

The Doctor and Rose's morning reverie was interrupted by Jackie's voice wafting up from the lawn through their open window. "Oi you cheeky little thing, bursting outta there like that! Don't you run away on me! That's right, get in that ball! Gotcha!"

"Mum?" Rose yawned, sticking her head out the window and looking down to where her Mum stood, two stories below.

"Oh, It's about time you were up. It's half past ten, you know! And Pete`s in a right state. You really need a phone, Doctor!" Rose noticed that her Mum did not even acknowledge her presence. That hurt. A lot.

The Doctor, hearing his name stuck his entire upper body out the window with a bright smile and wave. "Mornin' Jackie! Lovely day, isn't it? Blimey! Didn't realize it was so late! Unusual for me, that. Losing track of time is difficult for a Time Lord. So, what are you harping on about?"

"Harping! I'll harp you!" She shot him a look that could kill. "Just playing a new game on my new mobile that Pete gave me. It's that Pokey whats-it."

It took a few seconds for her comment to register. " _Pokemon Go_? The app craze that takes over the planet in 2016? Jackie, how do you have that technology? That kind of mobile's not supposed to be available for about 5 more years yet, and that app for 10!"

"I don't know. I didn't make the stuff!" Jackie retorted.

"Maybe this universe has a different technological timeline?" Rose suggested helpfully.

Jackie snorted. "You'd better hurry on over to Torchwood, Doctor. Pete's in a state, and not even Mickey can talk him down. Something about a strange power surge. They were gonna call you, but you don't have a bloody mobile!"

"They could've called _me!_ " Rose snapped.

"On it! Tell Pete that we're on the way!" The Doctor shushed Rose, not wanting to make a tense situation worse. He was practically dancing back into the room. It was amazing what good a night of sleep could do. He was back to his old self; dancing around, gob flying, goofy grin plastered from ear to ear.

His happiness was infectious. "Permission to investigate, Sarge?" Rose grinned at him, tongue poking through. She was still smarting over her Mum's rudeness, but the Doctor's enthusiasm was catching. It was so good to have him back.

"Granted. Keep your eyes open, Lewis!"

-DW-

"The source of the power surge appears to be coming from Cardiff, boss," Mickey reported when the Doctor and Rose arrived.

"Cardiff? What's with Cardiff? There's nothing _in_ Cardiff!" the Doctor sniffed.

"Could it be the Rift?" Rose asked.

"No. Impossible. Completely different universe," The Doctor was adamant. "Because, if there is a Rift here, then it never got sealed. And _that_ would be a big problem indeed!"

"Would this Rift be a seam of energy cutting straight through Cardiff and dividing the Millenium Center in two?" Jake pointed on his monitor.

"Bugger," The Doctor sighed. "Well, nothing like a big, earth ending problem to take our minds off our personal problems, eh Rose?" he grinned at her. She grinned back. "Allons-y!"

"Since when is it not an earth ending problem with you two?" Mickey smirked as they all ran to the Torchwood Black SUVs for the ride to Cardiff.

"Yeah, it's like a curse," Jake teased. "You know, we got along fine here with out you all. No major problems. Then you came. Instant Cybermen invasion."

"Hey, you guys aren't being very fair," Rose quipped. "The Cybermen would've still been here, whether or not we all came, thanks to the Cybus Industries. Then where would you've been without us?"

"Dead, most likely," Jake admitted.

-DW-

The road to Cardiff was blocked. Every road to Cardiff was blocked. And not just Cardiff. It seemed as though the entirety of Wales had been quarantined, nothing in or out. Or at least that was the theory. No one was getting in, but there were a lot of people trying to get out! They ran, crawled, and even tried to swim across the channel.

Those who were successful in their escape warned anyone who would hear about "Creatures," and "Monsters," and "Another World!"

"Sounds like right up our alley, yeah Doctor?" Rose grinned up at him.

"Right. Call up Pete, tell him we need a favor. We need a helicopter," the Doctor commanded.

"Helicopter?" Jake was confused.

"He means zeppelin," Mickey replied. He then turned to the Doctor as Jake fished out his mobile, and shrugged. "Close enough, anyway."

As they prepared to board the zeppelin, more people escaped Cardiff, all of them yelling. But one word caught the Doctor's attention. "Hang on, did he just say, 'Pokemon'?"

-DW-

During the flight, the Doctor filled in the others on what he knew about the popular game that wasn't supposed to be released (in the Prime universe, anyway,) until 2016 called Pokemon Go. He gave them not just the information on the game but a complete history of the Pokemon franchise.

"But what the creators didn't realize when they created the game, was that the pocket monsters are real!"

"WHAT?" came the chorused response.

"They are actually from the planet Balligammon, a planet very much like Earth. It is the third planet in orbit around one star, and it has the same elements and features that your planet has. In fact, it is exactly like the Earth, except for two major differences. One, the animals have special powers, and can be captured in balls and trained to fight. Two, and perhaps even more importantly, that planet is about 40,000 light years away from Earth!"

Rose gazed out her window. "So the question is," she started, noticing that the Cardiff below was overrun with Pikachu's, Jiggypuffs, Charizards, Meowths, and the like, "How did they all end up in Cardiff, and how are we gonna send them home?"

He grinned. "Gotta catch 'em all!"

Everyone groaned.


	6. Chapter 6

**I am so, so, sorry dear readers, about the delay of this update. I wanted to throw in a mini-adventure to break up the angsty bits. And the next event that I have planned is going to be super angsty, so, I wanted this to be light, fun, and perhaps even a bit silly. Having fun with the** _ **Pokemon Go**_ **craze seemed like a great idea at the time, but, only after I posted that bit did I discover that sending a horde of Pokemon back to wherever it was they came from without the aid of a TARDIS is practically impossible. (Good thing that my versions of the Doctor and Rose eat impossible for breakfast!) I'm still not completely happy with the resolution, to be honest. But I hope you enjoy this chapter anyway. And if you don't, I promise that the next will be awesome!**

 **Sadly, I do not own either** _ **Doctor Who**_ **or** _ **Pokemon Go**_ **, though I do own some box sets of DW DVDs, and I do have the app on my phone, though my interest in it lasted maybe two weeks, tops, mainly because all of the gyms near me were claimed early and are now guarded by Pokemon who can take mine out by attacking just once, but I digress.**

CHAPTER 6

 _BREAKING NEWS: The makers of_ Pokemon Go _have issued a massive recall. Unforeseen malfunctions within the game have caused disasters on a massive scale. All Pokemon trainers are to stop using the app immediately and delete the app. All money spent on the game will be credited to the user's next mobile bill. Developers have shut down the game servers and are working with an agency known as Torchwood to rectify the matter._

 _In related news, the city of Cardiff has been placed on emergency lock-down after a series of incidents involving the popular Pokemon game. For your safety, no one is permitted to enter or leave the city unless authorized. Cardiff residents who have found themselves outside the city will be provided temporary housing._

 _To those who are currently within the city's borders: you are under curfew, effective immediately. Return to your homes and lock all doors and windows. All non-essential personnel who are found outside will be arrested for their own safety. Law enforcement officials and members of Torchwood are working together to restore order._

 _Stay-tuned to BBC news for more information._

"So much for secrecy," Pete sighed. "But I guess it's about time that the world knew that we were here, defending them all."

"Yeah, boss," Mickey agreed. "It's not like we can keep these kinds of happenings secret. I, for one, would be glad to know that someone is out there protecting our planet."

"Still, I can't believe they issued a bloody lock-down!" Pete bellowed. "We are going to have pure panic on our hands."

The Doctor groaned in agreement. He loved humans, he really did. At their best, they were loving, kind, imaginative and courageous. At their worst, however, few creatures could be so evil. Mass panic unfortunately had a tendency to bring out the worst in them. He realized that as the Torchwood zeppelin came in for a landing, they could be walking into a bloodbath.

He looked over at Rose and opened his mouth to speak.

"Don't even think about it!" she retorted, arms folded across her chest. Oh, she knew what he was going to suggest! "I'm coming, and that's that!"

The Doctor saw a flash in her eyes that reminded him of her mother right before a slap, not that he would tell her that. True, Rose had never slapped him before, but she was her mother's daughter, and there was a first time for everything. He decided not to tempt fate, snapped his jaw shut and swallowed thickly before responding, "Right, then. I was just going to say I hoped you were coming."

She smirked at him. "Sure ya were." She slapped him after all, playfully though, on the back.

He cleared his throat, shrugged back his shoulders, and prepared to follow the others out the door, sonic screwdriver at the ready. The Doctor was in. "Right then. Allons-y!"

Rose grabbed his hand, and together they stepped out into the Cardiff sun.

They'd stepped out into chaos. Everywhere they looked, unusual creatures of every shape and size were running amok, leaving damage in their wake. A pair of meteres tall Charizards along with a handful of their unevolved Charmeleons and Charmanders had set fire to an entire city block. Some of the firefighters had gotten creative, and were using water based Pokemon such as Squirtles and Horseas to fight the fires, along with more traditional methods. A pack of Growlithes and Arcanines were chasing a similar sized pack of Meowths and Persians up and down through city streets and alleys and creating a lot of racket. Pidgeys, Spearows, and their evolved forms were flying high in the sky, squawking loudly, and dropping "presents" on unsuspecting bystanders below. It seemed that on every street corner, Pokemon were doing battle with each other. In the midst of all of this chaos, a Jigglypuff had found a microphone, and was singing its name in its strange melodic voice at the top of its lungs.

Then there were the people. It seemed that no one listened to the curfew order, taking advantage of a clearly overwhelmed law enforcement, and were instead all out in the streets: most were just watching the events dumbly and a few were taking pictures on their phones, but many of them had chosen to engage the Pokemon, either by trying to capture them, or shoot them, or sometimes, both.

Mickey, Pete, Jake, and Rose all looked at the Doctor. They were at a complete loss as to what to do. The Doctor threaded his fingers through his hair the way he did when he was frustrated. Rose watched this gesture with increasing worry. If the Doctor didn't know what to do, then they were in serious trouble indeed.

"To the Hub!" Pete shouted over the din, running towards a tour office in the Millenium Center. The others followed, not knowing what else to do.

After tapping a code on a hidden control panel, the back wall of the office slid open to reveal the entrance to an underground chamber. The group entered. Rose gasped when she saw the size of the place, and was even more amazed when she saw a creature flying in the air above them. _Is that a pterodactyl?_

Five people, three women and two men, immediately snapped to attention when they saw the group's arrival.

"Director Tyler, sir. What a pleasant surprise!" A young, Welsh woman with long dark hair and a gap between her teeth stepped forward and offered her hand to Pete. "Welcome to Torchwood 3!"

"Thank you, Deputy Director," Pete responded, shaking her hand vigorously. "May I introduce my team? This is Agent Jake Simmonds, and Agent Mickey Smith. May I also introduce to you our Chief Alien Consultant, the Doctor, and his partner, Rose Tyler?"

 _His partner!_ _Not his companion. Not his assistant. His partner!_ Rose thought. A unique thrill pulsed through her system and caused her to shiver. _The Doctor did not correct Pete, either. Does that mean..._

But her thoughts were interrupted by the Deputy Director's further inquiries. "Rose _Tyler?"_ she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, Ms. Cooper, she is, indeed, my daughter," Pete replied, proudly.

Deputy Director Gwen Cooper then introduced the other four members of her team. Toshiko Sako, a sweet young Asian woman, was the technology specialist. She had been monitoring the activity of the Rift around the clock since before the Pokemon first appeared. She looked absolutely exhausted, and the large cup of coffee in her hand further attested to that fact. Dr. Owen Harper was their medical analyst, a shorter man with sandy colored hair, and an expression on his face that said he had experienced a lot of tragedy in his young life and was bracing for more. Ianto Jones was the chief field agent, and reportedly made the best coffee on the planet, a designation that Rose planned to test at the earliest opportunity. The final member of the team was Suzie Costello, and was Gwen's second in command. Suzie was also young, with dark hair cascading down her back, and wore dark-rimmed spectacles that reminded Rose of the Doctor's sexy ( _Brainy! I mean brainy!_ Rose corrected herself) specs. For some reason, however, something about the woman made Rose wary of her. She suddenly realized that those vague feelings actually came from the Doctor, who had decided almost immediately that Suzie was not to be trusted. He had glanced at her timeline and learned some things that he'd rather not know.

Owen was the first one to speak, shaking hands with the Doctor. "I'm sorry, Doctor, but I didn't catch your full name."

"Oh, it's just the Doctor!" he replied, cheerfully.

"Yeah, but Doctor Who?" Owen inquired. Rose and the Doctor exchanged a look and a small smile, silently laughing at an inside joke.

"Just the Doctor," he said again, moving on to greet other members of the Torchwood 3 team, and leaving Owen behind, looking very confused.

Rose took the Doctor aside. "Does it feel like anyone's missing to you?" she whispered.

"No. But I'm oddly reminded of our old friend, Captain Jack Harkness, right now."

"Weird. Since he's never been here before."

"Yep. Probably nothing though."

"Yeah, probably. He'd love this place, though."

The Doctor snorted at that. "Nah, he'd just love the beautiful people here."

Rose grinned. "Yeah, that's more like Jack."

"Quite right, too."

-DW-

Hours later, everyone had tired of staring at computer screens and had retired to bed in Torchwood's guest quarters: everyone that is, except for the Doctor and Rose. The Doctor was still valiantly searching for a solution to their Pokemon problem, and still coming up empty. Rose was valiantly fighting the urge to sleep, vowing to keep him company.

She stifled another yawn. The Doctor turned to her. "Go to sleep, love. I'm afraid that it looks like you're going to need the rest. Unfortunately, it looks like our problems will still be here come morning."

Rose's eyes misted over at the love she felt emanating from him and the genuine concern she heard in his voice. The Doctor noticed. "You alright, love?"

There it was again. Oh he had called her that before. After all, it was a common colloquialism in her culture, and it normally didn't mean a thing. But something about the way he said it, accompanied by the feelings emanating across their newly formed bond, told Rose that perhaps it meant something more.

She surprised him by crushing him into a bear hug, and pecking him on the cheek. "You're probably right, then. I'm just tired," she said, simply. Then summoning all the love she could and focusing it on that tiny bit of him that was still in her mind she said, "Goodnight, love."

The look on his face told her that he understood every word.

The Doctor worked on their little Pokemon problem well into the night. More than once, he missed the TARDIS and her limitless database and 52nd century technology for analyzing these types of situations. He could have solved this problem hours ago, sent all of the Pokemon back through the Rift from whence they likely came, and been back at the Tyler mansion in time for tea.

And his headache didn't help matters any. Oh, the presence of Rose in his mind did help considerably. But the connection to the TARDIS was becoming so weak and stretched so tight and thin, that he knew it was only a matter of time before it snapped completely. What would come of him, then? He did not look foward to finding out.

-DW-

The answers came to him early the next morning as the rest of the team awoke. The Pokemon had indeed come through the Rift. After running several simulations on the Torchwood computer, he confirmed his theory. The smartphone had been created way too early in this universe. A working android phone had fallen through the Rift from a decade or so in the future, and a enterprenueral annoymous individual decided to duplicate its properties and "invent" the Android smartphone. (Incidentally, this had infuriated the United Colonies company, Apple, who was set to come out with their first iPhone later that year, and spawned a huge lawsuit against the Cardiff based company, which they lost.) Now, not only did Android claim the honor of being the first smartphone in this universe, but _Pokemon Go_ was developed a full decade too early.

Time was now so warped here that the launch of the popular game had sent the Rift into overload, and before they knew it, it was spewing real-life Pokemon all over the city. Fortunately, the subsequent shut down of the game had stopped the phenomenon from spreading across the entire planet.

Also fortunately, as far as alien invasions could go, this was relatively tame. Pokemon were actually docile creatures, and under direction of the Doctor and Torchwood, reports were now coming in from all over Cardiff of people wrangling the creatures and taming them almost instantly. They did not have the legendary Pokeballs, but they did have ropes, nets, and other creative traps, most of which did not harm the creatures. The holding cells in Torchwood 3 were slowly becoming crowded as people brought their captured Pokemon to them. Slowly but surely, the chaos was giving way to a sense of normalcy, or as normal as having a Snorlax snoring in the next room is.

"Gotta catch 'em all," the Doctor whispered to himself with a slight chuckle. "Seems there's some truth to that after all."

"Yeah," Rose whispered back. "But what do we do with them once they're all caught?"

"Working on that," he replied, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. If only he had the TARDIS! He could fix the chameleon circuit (oh, he'd figured out how to do that centuries ago, but the blue police box is a good look for her, so why change if you don't have to?), temporarily change her into a giant pokeball, and take them all back home. Granted, he could actually build a giant pokeball, but that would take years, or decades even!

If only he had a spaceship. Any spaceship would do! Then he could fly to Balligammon, get a stash of pokeballs (and maybe invite that whiz kid, Ash Ketchum, to come help), capture the creatures in the balls, and fly them back home. Again, he could build a ship, but there has got to be an easier way!

Or if he had a transporter? He could then just transport them all home, _Star Trek_ style! ( _How's that, Miss Rose-you're-not-Spock-enough-Tyler?_ ) But... The Doctor sighed. Yes, he knew that this time period was Rose's and that she was the most comfortable in this time, and yes he's lucky not to have been stranded in a time when horses were the main mode of transportation, but the technology of the early 21st century (even at its current slightly ahead of schedule development) was just so limited.

If only he didn't have this bloody headache! Think, Doctor, think!

-DW-

In the end, it was actually Mickey who came up with the solution, though the Doctor was loathe to admit it. "Hey, boss! Why don't we put up a lure module?"

A lure module! Yes! Pokemon like lure modules like cats like catnip, and since the game had been deactivated, they had gone for a serious length of time without a hit. A lure module would be completely irresistable! They'd follow it anywhere, even, perhaps, into the Rift!

Before Mickey knew what hit him, the Doctor had snatched his mobile out of his hand, did some jiggery-pokery on it with the sonic screw driver, and within seconds, was surrounded by thousands of pocket monsters, eyeing the small device hungrily. Then, winking at Rose, the Doctor wound up for the pitch, and sent Mickey's mobile flying into the Rift.

"My phone!" Mickey yelled. "What'd ya have to go and do that for?!"

But before the Doctor could apologize (not that he was going to anyway), there was a rumbling like a great earthquake as thousands upon thousands of Pokemon gave chase, and disappeared into the Rift with a distinct _ping!_

 _Looks like Team Rocket's just blasted off again,_ Rose wryly thought to the Doctor with a small smirk. He only grinned in response.

Everyone cheered, except Mickey, who sulked and said that the Doctor owed him a new mobile.

-DW-

The zeppelin ride back to London was quiet. Most of the passengers had drifted off to sleep and light snoring could be heard. Soon, however, everyone was rudely awakened by a very loud BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

It was the Doctor's Void alarm.

There was just one gap in the walls of the universe left. It just might be stable enough for them to pass through.

After a quick call to Jackie to meet them, the zeppelin changed course, now headed towards a beach in Norway.


	7. Chapter 7

**Now that that pesky Pokemon invasion is overwith, the words to this story are flowing freely now: so much so that I had to split this chapter into two! I think that you're really going to like this!**

 **Still don't own Doctor Who. Just the plot. Oh, and I have a TARDIS pillow. Don't think its bigger on the inside, though.**

CHAPTER 7

Jackie met them in Bergen and was in rare form. "Now what's the emergency that requires me to travel by myself in a bloody Zeppelin all the way to bloody Norway?"

It was Rose who cleared her throat and responded as Pete went to check them all into a hotel. "There's one last gap between the universes, and it's near here. If we have any chance of getting back, this is it."

"So that's it, then? You're just gonna swan off with him and leave me here, aren't you?" Her eyes cast daggers towards the Doctor who suddenly realized that the Void alarm needed to be tinkered with, and immediately made a hasty retreat. Sensing the mounting tension in the rented jeep, Mickey and Jake decided that the Doctor needed help, and bolted after him. _Thanks for the support, guys,_ Rose thought to herself.

 _You're welcome! Have fun!_ came the Doctor's cheeky reply through their bond. She gave him the mental equivalent of an eye roll.

Sighing, Rose braced herself for the Oncoming Jackie Tyler. "Mum, you could come too, you know," she said, quietly.

Jackie sniffed. "What, so you can galavant across the universe with him and leave me at the flat where there is nothing to do but worry about you? No, ta! I'm gonna stay here where I am actually appreciated and loved! Not to mention..." Jackie's voice trailed off as she noticed that Rose was crying.

"Oh, Rose, Sweetheart, I'm sorry. I shouldn't've... Are you alright?"

Rose sniffled for a moment, and then threw up her hands in frustration. "Mum, if you would just listen to me a moment! No, I'm not alright! Very soon I could lose someone I love forever! If this gap is big enough and the Doctor thinks we can cross, then I'll be losing you and Pete and Mickey. If it's not, then I'll be losing the TARDIS, and probably the Doctor too, because he depends on the TARDIS to survive! He has been able to maintain a mental connection with her all this time because there have been gaps between the universes, but this is the last one! If that gap closes and he is still here, he could die Mum! Not regenerate! Die!" She was sobbing fully now in fear and frustration and anger at the entire situation.

"Oh, Sweetheart, why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you never gave me a chance! The entire time we've been here, all you've done is sulk and grouse that I had the audacity to choose the Doctor over you! Do you really think that choosing him was easy for me?! Ok, I admit, choosing him was the easy part. But choosing to leave you behind, forever?! Mum! I love you, for crying out loud! I don't want to lose you, but I feel like I already have! And now, this time tomorrow, the Doctor and I could be gone and I'll never see you again! How do you think that makes me feel, Mum?! I have made my choice, and I stand by it, because I love the Doctor. Whether or not he loves me in return, it doesn't matter, because he is the love of my life, Mum! And yet, you're my Mum! The choice between the two of you is impossible! And yet, I've made it, because you are my past, and he is my future! But that doesn't mean that it's not killing me inside!

By now, Jackie was crying, too. She embraced her daughter, and rocked her as she used to do when Rose was a little girl. "Oh, Sweetheart, I'm sorry. I have been an awful git these past few months. I've been hurting so much, I didn't even notice that you were. Could you ever forgive me?"

Rose looked up from where her tears were dampening her Mum's shoulder and managed a weak smile. "Of course I do, Mum. Could you... do you, forgive me?"

"Oh Sweetheart, I admit that he is not the man I had hoped you would end up with. I had at least expected that the man who would steal my little girl's heart would have been from the same planet! But as long as he makes you happy, and I have seen that he does, I give you my blessing. Just promise me something."

"Yes, Mum?" Rose smiled up at her, hopeful.

"If my grandbabies start sprouting tentacles, I don't want to know about it."

"Mum!" Rose laughed. "Does the Doctor have tentacles? Really, now!"

"Well, I don't know what he looks like with his clothes off, now, do I? Besides, just because his last body and this one look human doesn't mean that all his bodies do!"

Rose just shook her head and grinned. Everything was back to normal. Finally. "He says we look Time Lord. Besides, we may not even have children. I don't even know if we _can_ have children! And besides, the Doctor and I aren't like that."

"Sure. Now pull the other one!"

"Mum, I'm serious!"

"You keep telling yourself that, love. Besides, you never know, when it comes to having children, sometimes the unexpected is to be expected." Jackie finished this declaration with a slow, knowing smile.

Rose's eyes widened. "Mum?"

"I've been to see a doctor, not _the_ Doctor, mind. Just your regular ordinary medical doctor. And... well..."

"Yes?"

"I'm pregnant!"

Rose squealed with joy and would have jumped into her mother's arms if they weren't in the backseat of a rented Jeep. "Oh, Mum, that's... that's... I love you, Mum!" Her eyes started to water. She was happy for her Mum (and Pete, who of course had a hand in this), she really was, but this meant that there was just one more person that she loved that she could be leaving behind forever, and this one was a little brother or sister that she might never get a chance to meet.

Jackie seemed to understand and held her daughter closely. "Don't tell anyone yet, though," she whispered. "I haven't had a chance to tell Pete, yet. I will tell him tonight, though."

"Mum's the word, Mum!" Rose giggled at her own pun, hugging her mother tightly.

The Doctor chose that moment to reappear, knocking on the window and startling them. "Everything alright then? Or do I need to put my amazing diplomatic skills to use and mediate an agreement?"

Rose just glared at him over her Mum's shoulder.

-DW-

The hotel was quite posh. Rose was lying down on her side on one end of the king sized bed, curled up and snugging around one of the extremely comfy pillows that were piled high on it and watching the Doctor attempt to wear a path in the extremely plush carpet with his intense pacing back and forth.

"Will you just come and lie down, Doctor? I know you're nervous, but you're making me nervous just by watching you! At least sit down, or if you must stand, stand still!"

"I can't!" the Doctor whined, running his hand through his increasingly messy hair. "All I can think of is that gap! Why can't we just drive out there now? The gap could close by morning!"

Now Rose was worried. " _Is_ it closing?"

"No. Not at the moment," he admitted, reluctantly after checking his equipment for the 300th time since the alarm sounded. "But it _could!_ Or what if we get there, discover that it is big enough and stable enough, but the dimension jumpers still don't work! Or what if the gap starts to close when we get there and only one of us can fit through? Or what if you decide not to come with me?"

"I'm coming! And that's a fact!" Rose insisted, but the Doctor was on a roll and didn't pay attention.

"Or what if the gap is too small after all? Rose, what if we can't get through? What if we've come all this way for nothing?" Here, he finally paused to take a deep breath. "What if the gap closes and we are really and truly trapped here?!" His voice went higher and cracked a little with this last question, a true testimony of how afraid of this possibility he was.

Rose dared to look him in the eye, then. "Yeah, what if? Doctor, I hate that option as much as you do. But what if that is what happens? What's going to happen to you if your bond with the TARDIS snaps completely? What might I be able to do to help you, if the worst happens?"

The Doctor's eyes reminded Rose of a wild animal that had just been captured, so intense was his fear. "I... I don't know... I... I just don't..." he began to shake uncontrollably as his words threatened to turn into sobs. Rose scrambled off of the bed, threw her arms around him, and gently led him over to sit on the edge as she held him.

"Oh, My Doctor," she breathed, valiantly trying to hold back tears of her own as she absentmindedly drew circles on his back with her fingers like he did to soothe her. Unbeknownst to her, her hands wandered in the exact same pattern that his did, and she found herself spelling out her true feeling for him in his native language without even being aware of it as she wrote, "I love you," over and over again.

When the Doctor had calmed somewhat, she added, confidently, "No matter what happens tomorrow, Doctor, we will get through it together. You are not in this alone. We're together now, and we will still be together come this time tomorrow. Yeah? I promise. I'm never gonna leave you!"

The Doctor couldn't speak, but nodded. Then, returning her embrace, they both collapsed in a heap on the bed, determined to spend what was likely to be a restless night in each other's arms.

After quite a bit of silence, "Could we...?" the Doctor started.

"Yes, Doctor?"

"Could we... strengthen our bond? I... I... I... don't want to pressure you or anything... but... I have a feeling that I might... need it... come this time tomorrow."

Rose smiled softly. "We're already at the long-term relationship level, yeah? Isn't the next level, like you said, like an engagement?"

The Doctor's eyes grew wide, and then he suddenly found the comforter of the bed extremely fascinating as he was overcome with shyness. "Actually, Rose, I... I would like to skip ahead to the deepest level, the... the... married level if you will... if... if... that's alright with you, of course."

Rose fell silent, and thoughtful. There were a million emotions tumbling about within her, including an impulse to just say yes and jump in without looking back. She wanted this with him so badly! But, there was something that she needed to know first.

"Why are you asking me?" she asked, slowly. "Is it just because you will need a bond with someone to survive if the TARDIS is really and truly gone tomorrow? Or is it because you really and truly want to be married to _me_? I will do it either way, but I need to know exactly what it is that I am agreeing to first."

The Doctor looked at her then, eyes full of hope, and yet a lingering fear remained. "Can't it... can't it be a little bit of both?"

Rose was sure that her heart had stopped beating for a moment. She held her breath. "Say it, Doctor. I need to hear you say it."

"Quite right, too." He took a deep breath, and to Rose's amazement, he got out of bed, got down on one knee, and produced a _gorgeous_ ring with a TARDIS blue stone set in it from his pocket. "Rose Tyler, I love you. I have always loved you, practically since the word, 'Run!' Will you marry me? Tonight?"

Rose's eyes welled up, this time with joy instead of fear. "Oh, my Doctor. I love you too. So much! Yes, yes, yes, I will marry you!"

"You will?" he whispered, as he gazed up at her in amazement.

"Tonight," she added, nodding at him in earnest.

They weren't sure who moved first, but suddenly lips were on lips as they shared their true first kiss. Oh, they had kissed before, but it was never like this. This was not a kiss intended to draw the vortex out of Rose, nor was Rose momentarily possessed by a flap of skin or the Doctor restored to life after being a stone statue. They weren't pretending to be a couple to satisfy a horde of angry aliens who would burn Rose at the stake for traveling alone with a man who wasn't her father or husband (like they had to once), nor were they pretending to be a couple to satisfy a horde of angry aliens who demanded that Rose claim the Doctor or _he'd_ be the one burned at the stake (yeah, that had happened too, funnily enough). This wasn't a kiss on the cheek in gratitude, or a kiss on the forehead in comfort, or even a quick kiss on the lips in celebration of surviving yet another adventure. This was a _snog_ , a passionate exchange between lovers, and it was, simply, fantastic!

It started out slow and sweet at first, and soon tongues brushed against lips and demanded entry. Hands tangled in hair, and the ring, that gorgeous ring, was momentarily forgotten as it dropped, ring box and all, onto the floor. The sound of it hitting the floor startled them out of their reverie, and the Doctor chuckled as he bent to retrieve it.

"I almost forgot. I have to tell you the significance of this ring, Rose, before I give it to you. Gallifreyan children are loomed. When a child is disconnected from the loom, there is always a tiny bit of material left behind that is saved by the family. If the child decides to enter the Time Lord Academy, this material is then compressed into a stone, and cut upon their graduation. The resulting gem is called a soul stone, because it is believed to contain a bit of the soul of the Time Lord or Lady that was loomed with it. It is said that the stone is telepathic and will suddenly appear in the pocket of the Time Lord or Lady, set in a piece of jewelry, the moment that he or she meets their soul mate. It is said that that piece of jewelry will only fit that soul mate. Now, I don't believe in legends too often, but this is, indeed, my soul stone, and I found the ring in my pocket the night I first met you." Here he paused, gazing into her eyes so that she fully understood the significance of what he was saying.

She did. "Shall we try it on, then?" she quipped, grinning his favorite grin, the one where her tongue pokes out from under her teeth. He more than willingly obliged, and very reverently slipped the ring on her finger. It fit perfectly.

-DW-

The Doctor and Rose settled comfortably on the bed, lying on their sides, facing each other. The Doctor was explaining the different kinds of marriages on his planet.

"There were actually two different ways to be married on Gallifrey. The first and more common one is the political union. That is the one that would be more recognizable to you. A couple would stand in front of their family and friends, and their parents would vow to freely give their children to each other as part of a very long and drawn out ceremony. The bride and groom typically would not say anything at all, save to whisper their true names in each others' ears. These marriages were usually arranged, and couples were chosen in order to make political aliances between families and for reproduction. My first marriage was like that. I barely knew her, and don't even remember her name anymore. We went through the ceremony and afterwards contributed the obligatory genetic material for the looms, and that was it. Don't think I ever saw her again."

Rose grinned. "I take it that that is _not_ the kind of marriage you had in mind?"

At this, the Doctor's eyes grew very soft. "Certainly not. The other kind of marriage was extremely rare, and only the luckiest of couples were able to experience it. This was the bonding: a complete union of souls where they were bound so tightly that it was supposed to be impossible to tell where one soul ended and the other began. Their minds were so deeply bound as well, that the couples could read each other's minds and there were no secrets between them. It was said that this was why only soul mates could bond."

Rose's stomach fluttered in excitment and anticipation. "How did a couple become bonded?" she asked.

He reached up and placed his hands on her temples and closed his eyes. She mirrored his actions. _Just like this._ He spoke directly into her mind. _Follow my lead._

Rose suddenly found herself in what appeared to be a very long hallway. _This is my mind, Rose._ The Doctor, though unseen, filled the hallway with his presence. _Behind each door is one of my memories._ Suddenly, there was a great gust of wind, and all of the doors blew wide open, inviting her in. _All of my memories, my secrets, everything I am, is open to you, free for you to explore. I only ask that you reveal to no one what you learn._ To say that she was touched by this gesture was an understatement: the Doctor was a very private man. To let her into his most private thoughts and memories in such a manner was the ultimate act of trust on his part. She only hoped that she could live up to that trust. _Oh, Rose, I know you will. You already do._

She hesitated before deciding to venture down the hall, however. Closing her mental eyes briefly, she concentrated on her own mind, and rearranged it in a similar fashion. Satisfied with this, she calmly invited him to enter. Immediately, she was almost overcome with feelings of awe, pride, and yes, love, that could only have come from him. _Rose..._ was all he could say.

Sending him all of her love, pride, faith, and trust across the bond, she said, _We can explore each other's minds at the same time, yeah?_

And so they did.


	8. Chapter 8

**I am soooo sorry. RL has been... crazy lately. And I honestly thought I had already posted this chapter. In any case, I hope that you like it. I had fun fleshing out some of the details of the Doctor's life that is not covered in cannon. The ending of the Time War I hope is ambiguous enough that you can believe that Gallifrey was detroyed, or that the events of the 50th anniversary special took place in some way, shape, or form. Rose's backstory, I apologize, is darker than most other accounts I've read. Though it is unfortunately realistic, considering where and how she grew up. I don't mean to paint Jackie in a bad light, but she was going through things herself at the time. In my universe, Jackie tries, she really does, but she often gets so caught up in her own mess that she can't see anything else. The next installment is coming very soon, I promise.**

 **Trigger alert: mentions of war, sexual abuse, rape, and abortions**

CHAPTER 8

Rose traveled through the Doctor's memories and experienced them all as if they were happening to herself instead of him. She became a young, handsome boy named Theta Sigma and played with his best friend Koschei in the red fields of Gallifrey. Together, they'd entered the academy, and she grieved as Theta as Koschei went mad after looking into the Untempered Schism. She continued to grieve every time she encountered that former friend who was now a great adversary, The Master. She watched through his eyes as Theta ran away in fear of what he had seen in the Schism. Vowing to never be cruel or cowardly and to never give up and never give in, The Doctor became Theta's new moniker.

He failed his TARDIS driving test, not because the Doctor couldn't drive as many future companions would surmise, but because he visited Earth on his test trip, met a little blond haired girl at a fun fair who had lost her Mummy, and dared to interfere and help her reunite. (Rose was so immersed in the Doctor's mind at this point that she wasn't completely sure where his memories ended and her thoughts began, but there was something vaguely familiar about that scene). They were subsequently denied TARDIS ownership and admission into the council of Time Lords.

Believing he was destined to remain a planet bound Gallifreyan for the rest of his one life, The Doctor was joined in a political union marriage, and two children were loomed, a boy and a girl, as was custom. Rose was surprised to discover that he spent a majority of that one Gallifreyan life working in, and eventually owning a TARDIS repair shop. This was the closest he thought he'd ever come to his dream of traveling through time and space. As he neared retirement, he heard her call to him: a TARDIS Type-40 that was scheduled to be decomissioned was not ready to retire. Sensing his longing to travel, she reached out and bonded with him: and after a quick jaunt across the universe, The Doctor was a Time Lord at last. Technically, this TARDIS was stolen, but she certainly didn't mind stealing him away, either.

Very shortly after that, his granddaughter, Susan, joined him on his adventures, and the rest, as they say, is history. Rose experienced it all: companions, monsters, and regenerations. The Doctor's joy became her joy, his tears her tears, his fears her fears, his grief hers, and on and on it went, until she reached a rather formidable looking door in a corner where the hallway abruptly turned left and started heading in a completely different direction. The door was tall and black where the others had been normal sized and TARDIS blue. She knew instinctively that this room contained his deepest and darkest secrets: behind that door was the Time War. Slowly, hesitantly, the door opened itself to her with a loud creak.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped through the open doorway. The horrors which she experienced therein were not for the faint of heart and would likely fuel her nightmares for years to come: Crash landing on Karn and being forced to regenerate and enter the War, choosing forsake the name of the Doctor, knowing that every promise that that name stood for would be broken. Not a day went by during that horrible period when death and destruction was not experienced on a massive scale. Cries of "Exterminate!" and screams of persons of all races became background noise. After awhile, all emotions went numb: entire planets were destroyed before his very eyes, genocide became an everyday occurrence, and he began to wonder if there had ever been a time when he did not literally have blood on his hands. And yet he felt nothing. He felt that perhaps she should feel _something_ , but found that he didn't even really _care_ anymore.

Then the rumors started, rumors, that if true, caused even this Time Lord's numbed blood to run cold. Rassilon, the Lord President of Gallifrey, had found a way to end the war: by destroying the time vortex itself. He called it the Final Sanction. No one, not even the Time Lords could survive that! _Everything_ would die, but the Time Lords would ascend to be merely consciousness alone, or so Rassilon claimed. To make matters worse, just about every Time Lord or Lady actually _agreed_ with him! The one person who dared stand up to him was former Lady President Romanadvoratrelundar, a dear friend who had once traveled with the Doctor. Romana had had all of her regenerations taken away and was subsequently executed in front of everyone. All this was after Rassilon had stolen her power by staging a coup in the first place. The previous eight incarnations of the Doctor cried out in outrage and horror and grief internally, but the active incarnation just used it as fuel for a fire that had been slowly growing inside.

No more. No More. No. More. This became the mantra as a decision was made to do the unthinkable. The Moment, the planet eater, was stolen. In a shed in the middle of the Gallifreyan desert, the weapon was unveiled, and its consciousness (whose form Rose thought looked very familiar) argued. Everything after that was a bit of a fog, almost as if something happened that not even the Doctor could remember anymore. The next thing Rose experienced was felt rather than seen. The pain, the grief, the anger, the _guilt:_ all of it was just too much.

The Time Lord had regenerated, though he couldn't remember how. He had refused to look at himself in the mirror, afraid of what kind of monster the horrors of the war had produced. He clothed himself simply in a jumper, jeans, and boots, and topped it all off with a leather jacket which he wore like armor.

He'd thought about ending it all: found the perfect way, too, as well. He'd be the Doctor again, one last time. He'd sacrifice herself while protecting Earth from the Nestene Consciousness and refuse to regenerate: his own brand of assisted suicide. The darkness almost crushed Rose, and she stumbled out of the room, almost unable to breathe.

Then in the next room: light, joy, peace, and love. It was _her._ How she could radiate this much light into his darkness astounded her, because she had believed that she was in darkness herself at this time. No new information was revealed to her from this point on, because she had been there for all of it. However, experiencing everything anew from the Doctor's perspective was an enlightening experience in and of itself. Seeing the way she looked from the Doctor's perspective, feeling exactly the way he'd felt when this happened or that happened: all of it left her feeling almost shell-shocked at just how highly he regarded her and just how deep his love for her went. He had always said that she had made him better and that she had saved him, but she had never fully understood until now.

When she reached the end of the hallway after reliving the events from earlier that day, she saw that another hallway had merged with the one she was traveling down. There were no more doors: just doorways patiently waiting for new memories to be made.

And patiently waiting there, at the exact spot where the two hallways converged, was the Doctor himself, having completed his journey to the end of her mind's hallway which now merged completely with his.

When she reached him, another door appeared out of thin air, and he opened it for her personally. Through it was a tiny room containing only one thing: his real name.

-DW-

Likewise, the Doctor made a similar journey through Rose's mind, experiencing everything as if he was her. There were happy early childhood memories of playing on the swings with Shireen and Mickey, and scary ones of hiding with Mum underneath a window so they didn't get hit in a drive-by. There were memories of birthday celebrations and gymnastics victories, and of being bullied by classmates and abused by people she was supposed to trust. He learned very quickly how Rose could trust no one but herself, not even Mum. After all, Mum was always with her boyfriend flavor of the month (or week, or day even) and would always take the boyfriend's side when she said that she was touched inappropriately. Of course, Jackie eventually believed Rose, (but only because she walked in and caught them in the act), and was extremely apologetic and even filed charges against her abuser, but the damage had already been done.

Feeling used, damaged, and unloved, is it any wonder that at 16 she was willing to drop out of school and move in with the only person who seemed to care that she existed? Yeah, Jimmy Stone more or less raped her every night, but she didn't complain. It's not like she deserved any better. Finally the time came when she told Jimmy that she was pregnant. It was not the first time Jimmy beat her, but it was by far the worst. Waking up in the hospital the next day, she learned that Jimmy Stone had been arrested and that she had lost the baby.

She was _relieved._ And then she felt guilty for feeling relieved. That was her baby, a son or daughter that she really didn't want, but it wasn't like they asked to be created. They just, were. And now she was left with a profound sense of loss and a secret that she would take to her grave. Jackie had come to pick her up from the hospital, and at her request, was never told about the baby. As Mum tended to her during her recovery, they became closer than they had ever been before. Life wasn't exactly looking up, but it was headed in a slightly upwards direction at least.

When she was fully recovered from her injuries, she began to look for a job: a difficult feat, because no one wanted a chav from the Powell Estates who didn't even have A levels. Finally, Henricks came through with an offer. It wasn't a bad job, but it was still just that: a job. When she began dating Mickey, life settled into a kind of safe normalcy. It was boring as all get out, but it was not like she should expect life to get any better than it already was. She would likely continue working in the shop for the rest of her life, probably marry Mickey and have a brat or two, and that was it. No hopes, no dreams, no future. In fact, the future looked quite bleak indeed from this perspective. So bleak, indeed, that she found that she wanted nothing to do with it.

She thought of so many different ways to end it all: walking out in front of a bus, shooting herself, stabbing herself, poison - none of those sounded like particularly pleasant ways to go. If only she could die in his sleep. Yes! She would overdose on her sleeping pills!

She would work one last shift and Henricks, go on one last date with Mickey, watch one last episode of Eastenders with Mum, and go to sleep and never wake up. A perfect plan. She almost felt giddy with the thought. But at the end of the shift, she was asked to take the lottery money down to Wilson in the basement, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Reliving moments of his own life through Rose's eyes was an education for the Doctor. He had always said that she had been a source of light and hope to him, but never before had he realized how much light and hope _he_ had brought into _her_ life! For example, when she entered in console room in period dress for the first time just before meeting Charles Dickens and he had called her beautiful, he had never realized that that was the first time in her entire life she had actually _felt_ beautiful. He was relieved to learn that she saw straight through his "considering you're a human" crack and that her enthusiasm was not diminished by it in the least. Humans lived a much shorter life, but they lived completely and felt emotions intensely. He relived it all, enjoying every intense human emotion, both the good as well as the bad: relief at surviving yet another close call, fear when those calls became very close indeed, fondness of a certain Captain (and the Doctor was relieved that she only thought of him as a brother), jealousy of a certain frenchwoman (and the Doctor was ashamed that he hadn't even noticed), joy when everybody lived, grief when some did not, hatred of daleks and other evil creatures, and love for him. That was the one he was in awe with most of all, how intensely and completely she loved him.

When some time later, Rose finally joined him where the corridors combined, he found that he was more in love with her than ever, and he sensed that she felt the same about him. Therefore, it was with nothing short of the greatest joy he had ever known that he had manually opened the door that revealed to her his real name.

When she emerged from the room with this most intimate knowledge, the bonding was officially complete. They were now and forever Mr. and Mrs. Doctor and Rose Tyler, husband and wife, bondmates, soulmates, companions, best friends: nothing short of the stuff of legends!

When they returned to their own bodies, Rose was amazed to learn that only a few hours had passed. She had journeyed through 900 years of the Doctor's personal history in only a few hours! Time must move at a different pace in a bond. It was now the early hours of morning, and she was surprised that she felt as rested as if she had spent the whole night sleeping. Whether it was because the bonding experience had had similar effects on her as sleep or the fact that the Doctor hadn't needed to sleep had some how transferred to her across the bond, she didn't know, nor did she care.

The Doctor chuckled, "It's probably a little bit of both, actually." Rose felt his amusement as strongly as if it were her own.

She grinned. "Blimey, but this is going to take some getting used to! But... I like it. I like feeling you and knowing exactly what you're thinking and feeling. I take it that that goes both ways then?"

"Yep!" came the exuberant reply. And then without hesitation, he closed the distance between them and captured his lips in hers. She responded willingly, and there, in the early light of dawn, they consummated their love.

-DW-

Breakfast in the lobby was a hurried and tense affair, despite all attempts to make it lighthearted. Jackie's eyes lit up and watered (darn pregnancy horomones!) when she saw her daughter and her love enter the room hand-in-hand. Rose shyly showed off her ring to her Mum and Pete. Jackie had shrieked with joy appropriately, and Pete slapped the Doctor on the back and both congratulated them on their engagement. A silent agreement passed over the bond that they would not correct them. The Doctor did not fancy a slap for essentially eloping with Rose the night before, thank you _very_ much! Jake and Mickey also offered their heartfelt congratulations. "It's about bloody time!" seemed to be the catchphrase of the hour.

After that celebratory news was shared, the mood quickly became more subdued. The gap had continued to remain stable through the night, but it was still as unclear as to whether or not it would remain so, or even if it was big enough in the first place. The Doctor and Rose kept a steady dialogue of strength, hope, and comfort humming across their bond, but physically, he gave her space, knowing that this could be the very last morning with her family.

Everyone strived to carry on as if this was just another holiday and that there was not a sense of impending doom hovering over them all. Forced smiles and fake happiness did not adequately cover the fear and anticipation that was felt by all. Still, they made the best of it, making small talk about sports, shows on the telly, and even the weather.

Finally, it was time to go. Jake and Mickey planned to stay behind at the hotel so that the family could say their goodbyes privately. Jake shook both Rose and the Doctor's hands, said that it had been a pleasure knowing them, and not to take it the wrong way, but he hoped he never saw them again.

Mickey walked up to the Doctor and held out his hand. "Well, boss, it looks like the best man won in the end. I should hate you for it, but I can't find it in my heart to do so. You've given me so much, I cannot begrudge you your Rose. Thank you, thank you, thank you Doctor, for helping me become a man that would have made my grandmother proud."

The Doctor shook his hand in return. Despite the rather rocky start to their relationship, it was plain to see that both men now truly respected and cared for each other. "It's not too late, you know. You could come with us," the Doctor offered.

"Nah," Mickey shrugged. "Three's a crowd. Besides, I'm needed here. Thanks for asking though. I mean it. Take good care of her, boss," he said, with a nod towards Rose.

"I will," the Doctor vowed. Then almost as an afterthought, he added, "By the way, you're no longer an idiot in my book. I'm proud to call you a friend."

That was high praise indeed. Mickey didn't know what to say to that, so he just turned to Rose, whose eyes had already begun to water. "Seems we're always saying goodbye to each other, aren't we, Rose?"

"Yeah, it kinda does," Rose gave a watery chuckle.

"I don't know what to say that hasn't already been said. So, just... have a great life, okay Rose? You and your alien go and have the happiest life you can. Just, promise that every once in awhile, while you're running around saving the universe, could you spare a thought for me?"

"Oh, Mick, I'll never forget you! I'm sorry that it didn't work out between us, I really am. But somewhere out there, there is the perfect woman for you. I just know it. And you are going to make her very happy!" With that, they embraced each other in one final hug.

The Doctor cleared his throat, and they climbed into the backseat of the Jeep where Pete and Jackie were already waiting. Slowly they pulled away and headed towards the gap.

-DW-

Most of the drive was made in silence. Jackie and Rose had said almost everything they wanted to say to each other the day before, Pete was a man of few words to begin with, and the Doctor belied his fears by not saying a single word the entire trip.

But just because no words were spoken aloud didn't mean that there were no conversations being had. The Doctor's fears were borderline panic, and it was everything that Rose could do to stop her own fears from driving them both over the edge. There was just too much that could go wrong.

 _Doctor,_ Rose spoke across the bond. _I really hate to ask, but if this doesn't work, and the connection to the TARDIS is severed, what is going to happen to ya?_

 _I... I don't know. Losing a mental connection to their TARDIS has been likened to undergoing an amputation without any painkillers. So..._

 _So you'd be in severe pain. What else should I be aware of?_

 _I could go insane._

Rose wanted to say that he was already there, but now was not a time for teasing. Still, because of the bond, he heard that stray thought anyway and chuckled wryly. She smiled at him weakly in apology.

She found his hand and intertwined their fingers together. _Remember, whatever happens..._

 _You're never gonna leave me. I know, love. I know._


End file.
